A Leap from the Shadows
by AnyaTheLighthouse
Summary: Ylisse is a place with princes and princesses. It's supposed to be a place with good guys and bad guys. It's also supposed to be a place that only exists in our imaginations, so why am I here? How am I going to survive this? In a world of magic, dragons and swords, there can only be one answer: get creative. SI into the world of Fire Emblem: Awakening. Avatar/Robin is male.
1. Chapter 1: Discovery

**Hey all! This is my first fanfic, and I am really excited to bring it into ! Just so all of you know, this is a self-insert of Fire Emblem: Awakening. It's one of my favorite games, so I hope that this fic will do it justice.**

 **About the title, I chose the title as a reference to a story I heard was written by Plato.**

 **In the story, several prisoners are locked away somewhere dark. These prisoners live there their whole lives, and the cell is all they will ever know. A fire is the only source of light, but it is placed around a corner, such that the only world they can see is the wall across from them and the shadows cast upon it by guards and equipment passing by. Eventually, one prisoner escapes and discovers the physical world we know, with color, dimension and texture. This prisoner learns that the world he had once known was literally and figuratively a mere shadow of the world that existed around it.**

 **I kind of liked that story, and since I'm basing it off of a "journey between worlds" kind of thing, I thought it was a cool and appropriate title. I spent a long time figuring it out, so I had to say something.**

 **A couple warnings: This fic is rated M for possibly containing drugs, sex (don't worry I won't gross you out), violence, and criminal activity. For now, M is a safety because at least one of these things will pop up. Our world can be an awful place, why shouldn't theirs be one too? It also makes the little bits of good that come out all the sweeter. Also, I am writing this fic where I am aware of the events of the game prior to my insertion into the fic, so there are going to be some SERIOUS SPOILERS. Don't want 'em? Save the story for after you beat the game. No promise that I will finish it or of an update schedule, shouldn't be a problem, because I doubt it will gain much popularity to begin with. But that aside, we should be good to go. Oh yeah, I'm also a nerd. You have now been warned.**

 **Another thing that may confuse you: Phane is Robin. Robin didn't sound very Egyptian or desert-esque, so I changed his name. Based it off of Phanes, a Greek god and captain of the guard in Egypt? I couldn't find too much information on the person.**

 **Just a quick disclaimer (and this applies to this chapter, as well as all subsequent chapters in this story):**

 **I do not own the Fire Emblem Franchise, or any of its games. I do not own any of the referenced products in this story either, i.e. movies, games, electronic equipment, etc.**

A Leap from the Shadows

Prologue: Into the Storm

 **4 Years Ago**

 _Tap. Tap. Taptaptap. Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap..._

 _I looked up at the clock._

 _12:30 a.m._

 _I sighed in relief._

 _Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap..._

 _I look up again._

 _1:53 a.m._

 _I wipe some sweat and look back down._

 _Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap..._

 _I looked up at the clock again. I was always fighting the clock. No matter how hard I tried, time seemed to catch up to me. A little mistake here, a missed part there, it all added up. It always did. It always will._

 _4:24 a.m._

 _I can feel my heart racing, and my fingers hurt a little._

 _Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap..._

I don't know why I was remembering this. I don't think I knew then, either. It was some paper for physics class from some time. It was something that should have become another memory forgotten the moment I had finished making it. And yet there it was, glaring at me through the computer screen in my mind. Something about Newton's third law; for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. One thing will always lead to another.

I was lying down. Soft, green grass all around me, trees swaying at the edge of my vision. I watched clouds, large and white, roll above me. Birds were singing. An iPod pumped out some tinny sounding Queen. The air was cool. If I had to guess, this was spring, but I would be wrong. This was actually a miraculously out of place day at the end of June. It had been a week since I had graduated high school, and there I was, lying in the comfort of my backyard.

'The past week has been strange,' I mused as I absentmindedly tapped the pause button on the music player.

From the moment I started school, there was an end. Just as when I was born, a time was created in the future in which I will die, when school began for me, a time was created where it would finish. In a sense, I realized how close I was to that time. With college, school wasn't leaving, but taking a new shape and form in my life. It felt strange because, for the first time, when I looked back upon my school experiences, I was remembering as an adult.

As a result, I'd been thinking about my past quite a bit in the past few weeks. That paper I wrote for English, the time I finally beat the Mass Effect Trilogy, only to complain about the ending with my friends later, were all memories that I couldn't help but feel leave a hole in my chest. Probably because they'll never come back.

" _Let's see… George! Can you tell us why Athena served as judge in Orestes trial?"_

" _Um…" I jerked my head up and looked around, disoriented from my sudden awakening, "Two-thirds?"_

 _The class laughed_

'Then again, there are probably some memories worth leaving behind.' I mentally shrugged and readjusted my glasses. I tossed the iPod to the side and lie back down again. Relishing the blissful experience of an afternoon on the lawn.

I don't remember how long I dozed for. I do remember waking up, and deciding it was time to spend some time on the internet. As I went up to my room, I grabbed a bag of chips from the kitchen.

My room isn't anything special. I'm a neat freak and the easiest way to keep things organized, is to "have" less to organize. In other words, my room is incredibly bare, despite the fact that I'm a packrat in nature. So, what you see is a dresser and book shelf share a corner. On the adjacent wall, is my desk, and next to the wall across, is my bed. Aside from that is a small shelf to hold my cameras, because I can.

What you don't see is my secret stash of junk stored in boxes, organized and labeled, under my bed. The other boxes in my closet, also organized and labeled. Or the trash I have crammed in one or two of my desk drawers. Some of it is homework from elementary school. Some is the wires for electronics I own, old and new. Some are even keychains I have amassed over the years. All of it organized, yet hidden. Stashed away, and stubbornly avoiding the garbage can.

It didn't irritate me. I actually enjoyed it. It's not as though I loved that stuff; none of it was sentimental to me. But, if I needed it later, I had it. At least, that was what I told myself. As one might be able to tell, from the sheer quantity of stuff, I never needed it.

At my desk, I stared at the beat-up box next to the computer. It didn't actually look that worn. In fact, it probably stood out and seemed to be in such disrepair because it was next to the computer. The computer was a sleek laptop that lie almost flush against the desk, with a paper-thin screen that glowed dimly. Recently purchased for another four years in school, it hummed, "future". The box, on the other hand, was a plastic cube with a handle built in the back. Quite literally, nothing more than a plastic box with some buttons. It was scratched all along the sides and top, where a small plastic disc embedded within indicated what it was: GAMECUBE.

" _You can't have everything, George."_

There they were again. The memories. It must have been 11 years ago when I got that thing.

I was planning on taking the thing college. I left it on my desk so I wouldn't forget to take it out of storage when I would start packing in a couple months. It also went through a couple of plays the past weekend, just to ensure it still worked. It did, old faithful.

A strange sensation passed over me and a crazy idea flew into my head. For some reason unknown, I felt as though I would never see the gaming console again. It was so ridiculous, it pained me. But I looked away anyway. 'Just to be sure'.

When I looked back, the console was still there. I shook my head and returned my attention to the computer.

The afternoon passed quickly after that. The internet is such an easy and wonderful way to lose yourself, mostly to videos on YouTube and chatting on Facebook. Time sped up. An hour felt like minutes, which flew by like seconds. Soon I had already eaten dinner and the day had gone and I was lying in bed, trying to fall asleep.

Outside the window across from the bed, a fitful summer storm showered down.

Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap…

Trees rustled restlessly as the wind howled against them.

Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap…

Large, heavy drops fell upon the windows.

Taptaptaptaptap…

Within the protection of my home, the storm seemed distant. And I felt the paradoxical serenity that came with being inside during a heavy rain. I turned my head to face the window across from me, and looked out.

As I gazed outside, I couldn't help but feel as though there were something out there, waiting for me. Something I needed to remember. It was an incredibly irritating feeling. It nagged at me until any notion of wanting to go to sleep was gone. I stared intensely at the window, racking my brain for what could be out there.

Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap…

Several minutes passed.

'Wait, wasn't I listening to my iPod earlier?'

As that realization dawned upon me, dread filled the pit of my stomach. I got up from bed as quietly as I could and glanced at the clock as I put on a raincoat.

12:04 a.m.

I silently crept out of my room, heading for the back door. I then stepped out, and into the storm.

'I must have turned it off and forgot I had it when I went in.' I reasoned before mentally reprimanding myself, 'dammit, how could I have been so careless with something so important?'.

The air was much harsher than the trees let on, and the sheer force of the gust that hit me as I stepped out knocked me back a little. I closed the door as quietly as I could, but it was hard to tell whether or not the sound of the door was drowned out by the wind. I ran out to the lawn, desperate to search for my lost device, and fell to my knees. The wind picked up, and I couldn't hear anything over its roar any longer.

Somewhere, I knew that this couldn't be right. I knew that the weatherman had explicitly said tonight would be clear. I knew that if the wind was blowing this bad, even this late at night, that some people would be awake. There was no way the neighborhood could be this dark. And I knew that there was no conceivable way the wind could be blowing this hard to begin with. At the moment, however, I was only concerned with my little music player.

That iPod was the first and last thing I received from my late Grandfather, if my parents aren't included. I don't remember too much about him, since I got it when I was just starting middle school, and he only visited once a year. He lived quite far away. But any time we met, he talked to me earnestly, listening to my elementary school plights as though they were on the news with the presidential election. Even though I was too young to know who he was, I still loved and respected him a lot.

'Geez, what was that, 7 years ago?'. It was a crappy 2nd generation touch, but it still plays music fine and so I never felt the need to replace it. Besides, whenever I listened to music on it, I felt like I was returning what he had done for me. I felt like I had become the listener, and he was the speaker. It was ridiculous, but at least it made me feel better for knowing so little about him.

That in mind, I crawled around, searching with my hands as the wind picked up even more and my eyes teared up in protest. It didn't matter, I couldn't have spotted it anyway. The rain was actually painful now. I continued to search while mentally kicking myself, 'If only I remembered, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be here in this stupid, fucking rain.'.

"Aha!" I shouted as I reached out, grabbing at the wet, glass screen with my right hand. I could not hear my own voice, but I didn't care. One of the few things sentimental to me was in my grasp, and I was fine with that.

The world, however, did not seem to agree. The wind, already howling at god-knows-what speed, became even faster. My raincoat, already rendered useless, began to tear as my body was actually lifted off the ground. I desperately grabbed for the ground below me screaming, probably, like a little girl.

Perhaps if I let go of the iPod and grabbed the grass below with both hands, I might have been able to keep a hold. The mp3 player no doubt would go flying away in the wind, however, I might have been safe if I let go.

But I was not ready to give up my victory. So, clutching the small brick in my right hand, my left hand reached out, only to tear up a handful of soft, green, weedy material with it. I looked in horror at my left hand as I was swept up further. I could no longer reach the ground now. 'At least my glasses are safe inside.'

With that, the wind picked me up, and cast me off. And all went dark.

 **11 Years Ago**

" _Mommy, daddy, why can't I keep those toys?" I glanced forlornly at a small pile of stuffed animals and action figures._

" _Because," my father started, "Life is about borrowing."_

" _In the course of your life," my mother continued, "you have to both give and get. You can't always choose what it is you get to donate or receive."_

" _But in this case, you can. You got a new GameCube, right? You won't have time to play with all your toys, even if you wanted to. You have a choice right now, son." My father looked at me with warm eyes._

" _There are children who have no toys, if you can at least give them the ones you won't play with anymore, right?"_

 _I looked at my parents, eyes wide. They always had some wise answer to my questions. Suddenly I felt foolish, and selfish. Of course I wasn't going to play with them as much anymore. The choice was so easy! "Mommy, daddy, I think you're right. I'll give them away."_

 _They smiled, "See? You can't have everything, George."_

Chapter 1: Discovery

"Ow…"

My head hurt. My legs hurt. Simply put, I felt like I had been placed in a blender. Not quite the experience of a lifetime. On top of that, something poked uncomfortably into my back, which kindasortareally sucked. I slowly opened my eyes, only to close them again as white, hot pain shot into them.

'Damn, it's bright… where am I?' I thought as I tried to open them again. I racked my brain for memories. "No. Not the cat video memories," I grumbled, 'How the hell I got to where I am now memories, thank you very much.' It was something about rain and wind. A lot of wind. There was a storm. 'Yeah, I remember the storm, the iPod, and being whisked away to… here. But where is here?'

I finally managed to open my eyes to see a beautiful early autumn scene above me. The morning air was cool, the sky was a lively blue, and the beginnings of autumn touched the trees. There were no paths and no animals. Only the trees and underbrush were present.

I was lying flat on a jagged branch on the forest floor, the source of my back discomfort. My arms and legs were spread out, and my head rested awkwardly next to a tree trunk. Tightly squeezed in my right hand, was my iPod. Its screen was cracked, and it clearly no longer worked. My blue rain jacket was torn down the front, right next to the zipper, exposing the plaid pajama shirt I had on. And, as if to condemn me more, I was covered in mud. Head to toe, any part of me that didn't have twigs and leaves stuck, was covered in the brown, pasty substance.

No, this was not what I expected Wednesday morning to be. 'But hey, at least I have all of me.'

'This is bad,' I started to panic. 'This is so, so very bad. There are no woods by my house. A whole season has passed. I have no phone, food, water, shelter or means of finding that stuff… this is really bad.' I noticed my breathing starting to speed up, and the sky and trees above me seemed to stretch out, making me feel smaller and more lost than ever before. 'I have to get out of here.'

I slowly shifted my body up, groaning in protest. 'Note to self: sleeping alone in the mud and rain, lying on a tree branch, results in joint pain, soreness and bruises upon waking up.' Hopefully, I wouldn't need to remember that. I sat up, and took stock of my surroundings. Tall maple trees surrounded a small grove of oak trees. Thick, green, thorny patches of underbrush wrapped themselves between the trees, reaching for the few rays of light that shone through. I was lucky enough to land on a small cluster of grass and weeds that struggled in the shadows of the surrounding plants.

Unfortunately, that was just about the only lucky thing to happen to me. I stuffed the iPod into my pocket and began wandering around only to yelp as pain shot into my left foot. "Ow! Shit! Augh!" I screamed as I plopped myself back onto the grassy spot where I woke up. I looked up at the sky, "For all that is good, what the fuck is happening?" I asked to nobody in particular. "None of this makes any sense…" I mumbled.

Done with my rant, I cradled my foot, taking a moment to inspect it. A sharp rock hidden in the grass seemed to have sliced it. 'What was I even thinking going out without shoe-'

"Maybe if you asked nicely, you might get some help," a voice said. It was bright and perky.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. I turned around frantically, trying to find the source of the voice, but empty forest surrounded me.

I groaned, "Wanna come out and see me? Or am I going crazy?" this was not helping my situation.

"Try looking up," the same voice replied, it was almost giddy with… excitement?

'Okay, so I'm not crazy. And this person can help me.'

"Great, I was really hoping that you could help me out here," I began, turning my head up, "you see, I'm pretty lost right now, any idea where…" I trailed off, leaving my sentence unfinished.

Above me, in the tree branches, was a boy dressed in what more or less resembled a couple of brown sacks assembled to look like clothes. His arms and legs were thin and his whole form, much like mine at the time, was covered in mud. I couldn't tell if his hair was brown, or if it was just the dirt. Whatever the case, the mud helped to mask his appearance in the mass of branches around him. I couldn't make out how he looked beyond that. Without my glasses, he was more or less an ambiguous blob of brown. None of this took away from the most unusual thing about him: the dead rabbit in his right hand. 'At least, the gray blob in his right hand' I mentally amended.

I looked at him and smiled awkwardly. This kid was strange. Who still goes hunting for food? Even more, who goes hunting in the middle of the suburbs? Who knows what kind of chemical junk that rabbit might have eaten? Whatever it is, it'd probably poison me, or at least cause some strange medical condition. God, this whole situation was messed up on so many levels.

I shifted glances from the hare swaying several feet from my face and the grinning boy a little higher above me. "On second thought, maybe you need the help," I said, only a little nervous. "What have you got the rabbit for?"

"This thing?" he said, smiling wider than ever and stepping down a couple of branches, so that I could see him a little better. "It's dinner. I caught it this morning." I couldn't see it, but I could imagine that his eyes were sparkling with amusement and he leaned in closer, almost curiously. "I was watching you. You look funny." The kid really needed to calm down a little. Besides, don't kids have better things to do than watch strangers? Especially strangers who were making a fool of themselves?

"Um. Okay…" I mumbled, scooting away awkwardly a little and shifting my attention back to my still-hurting foot. I was now certain that the thing in his hand was a hare, as it was only a couple yards from my face now. He held the feet of the rabbit in such a way that the rabbit was facing me. There was something seriously freaky about having to stare at the cold, lifeless eyes of the animal. 'Nope. Doesn't matter how blurry-ish those eyes were. They will always be creepy.'

'No doubt that thing is packed with whatever drugs people feed their lawns with around here' I repeated to myself, trying to shrug it off. I wasn't making him eat it and he sure as hell wasn't going to make me.

"Anyway," he replied casually, "You seem pretty lost and wounded, don't cha'? Well, my folks don't live to far from here, and I can get you patched up super quick." He ripped off a piece of his pants… sack… sack-pants? And handed it to me. The strip of cloth was rough and looked dirty, but I just shrugged again.

'Beggars can't be choosers.'

I began wrapping my foot up, brushing away dirt and little bits of leaves that got stuck to the part around the gash at the bottom. On closer inspection, the cut was small, and only went just a little below the skin. The blood had already begun clotting, and the initial shock was gone, leaving a dull throbbing in its place.

When I was done, I turned to the kid to find that he was eyeing me. He was clearly sizing me up. Such a serious face was pretty unsettling to see on a child. 'Also a weird personality shift.'

"You aren't from around here, aren't you." It was a statement. He was looking for a very specific answer, but I could not tell what.

'And he's definitely wary of me.'

"Yeah, I need to get to a payphone or bus stop or something. From there, I should be able to get home. There should be one somewhere in the nearest city or something."

He cocked his head to the side and frowned a bit. "What's a payphone? What's a bus stop?" he asked.

"Um…" I didn't know what to say. He was at most fourteen, probably twelve, he should be able to tell what a payphone or a bus stop was. "Err…" damn, this question had me like a deer in headlights, but his confusion looked so real. I sighed, a little frustrated. "Okay, so a payphone is a phone that you pay to use. You simply put some money into a slot on the booth and you can use the phone for a short amount of time. A bus stop is a place where you can wait for a bus to come and take you to a number of other stops." I was rubbing my temples now. This kid had a way with throwing me off. First his clothing, then his rabbit, and now this?

His confusion didn't disappear, though. It intensified. His brow furrowed as I spoke and he squinted his eyes suspiciously at me. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to ask something else, but I wasn't letting him have it.

"Just… get me to a road or something. I think I can take it from there." I exhaled. Something wasn't right.

He nodded and grinned, confusion disappearing from his face. I guess he really didn't care, or maybe his curiosity outdid his lack of trust in me. Whatever it was, he scrambled down the trunk and stood next to me. When he climbed down I was able to get a better look at him. His hair was blonde, mud and dirt was just caked on to the point that it was difficult to tell, but I could see small clusters of golden hair dangling from his head. The blurry mass that was his face cleared up and I could see a pair of hazel eyes peering back at me through the muddy mask. As the details became clearer, I could tell that he was dirtier than I originally thought and that his clothes were more or less rags barely held intact by thin threads here and there. Little nicks and scrapes made themselves visible on his body too.

"I can get you there," he said cheerfully, starting to lead the way, "Where are you from? I figure you must be one of them city folks ma talks about. Are you from Southtown?"

"No…" I said slowly following clumsily behind. My poor sight wasn't helping. 'God, why does that name sound so familiar? I don't live near a Southtown.' I stored Southtown as a place to remember. "I live in a suburb nearby. At least, I think it is."

"What's a suburb?"

"Know what, never mind."

I was having a hard time keeping up. I was taking every step carefully now. I watched for low hanging branches, vines, thorny bushes, and basically anything else that could or would hurt me. I almost tripped over a branch, twice. It was starting to get to feel like the forest was _trying_ to hurt me.

Not having my glasses made it even more difficult. It was easy to pick out large, jagged objects sticking out of the ground, but small sharp things blurred into the surroundings. With my poor eyesight, I couldn't spot them and had to use my feet to spot them. My feet would tentatively approach the surface it wanted to land on, gently tap the ground and feel for anything sharp, and then step. It slowed me down quite a bit, but I managed to follow along.

"So, I don't think that I've introduced myself. What's your name? I'm George, by the way." I stumbled through a couple of thorny bushes, cursing.

He hummed thoughtfully. " _Well_ ," he animated the word for emphasis, "I don't think my name is that cool. I want my name to be something heroic, so I wish my name was something like Marth, or Ike. I like Ike; I think it would be a good name for me."

I burst out laughing. " _Marth_?" I asked incredulously, a few feet behind him, "As in, the character from the video game? Do you realize how many kids at school would make fun of you?"

Sam stopped and looked at me, and quirked his brow. "Everyone wishes they were named Marth." He said it as though he was explaining it to somebody from another planet. "And you keep using these strange words. What's a video game? And school?"

"I can't explain all these things to you… just forget I said anything" I sighed. Sam was walking with a little spring in his step, completely oblivious to my scrutiny. 'This kid is either seriously out of place, or is trolling me to hell and back.'

"Anyway, you still haven't told me your name."

"Oh yeah! I'm Sam. Do you wanna be friends?" God, this kid was too much.

"We could be, but we probably won't see each other again once I get to the first road." I answered doubtfully. No point in lying.

"Oh, okay." The words came out softly, without shock. It was clear he was somewhat used to rejection. "It's a big world, I guess."

"Yeah..." I could already feel pangs of guilt hit me. Sam's shoulders slouched, and his eyes no longer seemed to hold their amused twinkle. With every step we took, my desire to take the words back increased. 'Stupid! He's just a child, would it have hurt to entertain him a little?'

We came out of the wilderness of the woods and on to a rough, muddy path. This path was a lot easier to walk on for me. There were no more hidden rocks or pointy sticks on the ground. I caught up to him and smiled awkwardly, "So... What do you like to do?"

Something about those words didn't sit well with me. 'No,' I thought, 'those weren't the right words, but then what were?'

His smile came back, yet his eyes remained dim. "I like all kinds of things! I like running and hunting and playing and talking and eating... But if I had to choose my favorite, it would probably be..." He smiled again and looked up at the sky. "It would probably be drawing. It would definitely be drawing!"

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed, a little over exaggeratedly. I had to do my best to make up for my mistake. It was nice to see that his smile was now genuine. It was as if thinking about his favorite hobby brought life to his eyes again. "What kinds of things do you draw?"

"Oh," he sighed and looked off into the trees, "I draw all kinds of things I see around. I draw horses, and cows and chickens and ducks. But I draw them in the dirt. See, my parents can't afford paper." He zoned out and stared into the distance for a while, as if thinking of a world where he had the cash for paper.

"Oh," Was all I had, I didn't quite know how to respond to that, "I'm sorry."

We walked quietly after that. Enjoying the peaceful view of the wilderness around us. I realized that Sam was pretty calm despite seeing some random guy out in the woods, but I suppose I was pretty calm for someone who _was_ that guy out in the woods. At least, now I was.

'Who knows?' I speculated, 'If Sam hadn't found me, I might be screaming curses at the sky.' After all, he did have a sort of child-like confidence that seemed to assuage my confusion.

I decided that after I got to the road and navigated for a bit, I would be home. I couldn't have gone _that_ far away. When that would happen, though, I probably would forget the whole thing ever happened, whether Sam liked it or not. 'Whatever. I'll miss Sam. He's such an interesting person.'

I looked over at the youth, "Tell me about yourself."

'Never, nevernevernevernevernever have I regretted such words.' I told myself.

We had long since left the forest for a wide, hilly meadow. The meadow was a stark contrast to the woods. Compared to the colorful greens and reds and yellows and earthy browns of the forest, the meadow was simply yellow and blue. Clouds had gone, and the air dried out. The only vegetation was a wide expanse of dry, golden weeds that wilted under the post-noon sky.

'Probably two o'clock'

We had also reached a road quite a while ago, but it was a dirt road and had no sign to indicate a location of sorts. So I was still as effectively lost as I was before. Moreover, for all the distance I could now see, I couldn't see a single housing complex. There were no apartment buildings in the distance. There were no buildings at all. I insisted that there had to be an asphalt road, to which Sam had only given me strange looks. 'The storm must have taken me further than I thought,' was the only thing I could tell myself.

The walking had lasted about an hour now, and I had begun to wonder what the heck drove the poor guy to walk an hour away from home to get a measly little rabbit. I never got to asking, though, and I had a feeling I never would.

The more pressing matter was the talking. Turned out that it really was one of his favorite things to do. Since I had asked him about himself, Sam had proceeded to tell me the story of his life. At first, his stories were somewhat interesting. He told me about why he went to the forest, and what he loved about being there. I tuned in and out of the conversation occasionally, mostly just nodding along.

Sam took a huge breath "And then…"

"Listen Sam, I would love to listen to the rest of your story, but you seem tired. I think you might need a break." I tried my best to sound concerned, 'More than that, _I_ need a break.'

He frowned a bit at this, but conceded that he might be a bit tired. "Okay, but remind me to tell you about the part where I caught this huge snake." He stretched his arms out as if to indicate that it was larger than life, "It fed us for a whole day! But anyway, what about you? What do you like to do?"

I took a deep breath in through my nose and exhaled through my mouth. "Okay, I guess I could tell you about myself." At least I didn't have to hear another hunting story. Can't blame the kid for trying to be creative, though. He managed to come up with all sorts of make-believe animals, things like fox-people and dragons. Like I said, some of it was pretty entertaining.

"I like to swim and run competitively, at least I did when I was in high school. I play some games, lots of portable ones. I suppose that doesn't matter too much though. You see, I have a dream." At this, Sam perked up.

"A dream?" he squinted at me, "you don't look very sleepy."

"No," I laughed, "not that kind of dream. The kind of dream I have is a goal, a place where I want to be in the future. Anyway, my dream is to be an astronaut." I said wistfully, "In the future, space travel will probably have advanced with the use of lighter materials. More lucky people will be able to go to space, and I want to be one of them." I drifted off into a daze as I imagined being weightless among the stars.

"I don't think I will ever understand the things you talk about." Sam said, snapping me out of my reverie.

"Man, you can't say you've never heard of space travel!" I said, aghast, "Come on, tell me you've heard of Apollo Eleven, or the space race, or the USSR? Do you even know what country we're in right now?"

"Never heard of them," he dismissed, "And of course I know what country I'm in. I'm in Ylisse right now. I don't know what sort of kooky stuff you've been told, but I never heard of nonsense like space travel, or video games or bus stops." He swung the rabbit at me defensively. "Anyway, we're almost at my village, I bet ma can get you sorted out to go to Southtown after that."

"Alright. Whatever." This had been most of our walk. When he wasn't telling me something about the snakes and rabbits, I was pointing out the bits that didn't make any sense. Marth had only been the first example of this. Followed by mages, knights, Plegia, and now Ylisse. At this point, I had all but given up. 'If the kid has his way, we're in a play-through of Awakening' I mentally chuckled.

"Anyway, what's your dream, Sam? You've probably got some idea for what you want, even if it won't last."

It was Sam's turn to feel out of place. He furrowed his brow thoughtfully before he answered. "I think I want to be an artist. But I don't want to draw. I want to make sculptures, even though I've never made one before, I think it would be cool."

"I see." I flexed and made a silly pose, "how about sculpting me?"

Sam laughed. His laugh was light and lively, yet it seemed to shake his thin frame entirely as it came out. "I guess I could, but my dream will probably never happen. I'm too poor, and I live in a small farming village, so farming is probably all I will ever know. We're actually getting pretty close now."

I looked around.

"See?" he said, pointing into the distance, "that's where I live." About three miles ahead of us, in a small valley, was a small village. A couple houses scattered around it, with large growing fields next to them. Some of them had barns where I had no doubt some livestock was being kept.

All that said, I saw no electric lights. There were no tractors. No trucks. No metal silos. Even with my poor vision, I should have spotted these things.

Just dirt, shacks and farms.

'I suppose I should have expected as much, considering the way he acts.' I looked over at the boy, who obliviously walked along, gazing happily at what was no doubt his home.

I gazed ahead again and admired the view. Although it meant that I was farther away from home than I thought, it was nice to see a place untainted by technology. It was nature and man, something only romanticized in books and movies nowadays. The air may have been dry, the grass yellow and the ground dusty, but the place seemed to have its own beauty. I squinted as something briefly flashed in my eyes.

"Say, Sam," I probed cautiously, "is it only me, or is there something shiny there?" I pointed to a spot in the sky that sparkled briefly. It disappeared, and sparkled again. I probably never would have noticed it if the object hadn't been so shiny. Everything was a blur to me, after all. 'Please be an airplane, dammit.' I prayed silently. 'Some sign, any sign of technology.'

Sam squinted at the spot, bringing his hand up to shield his eyes from the afternoon sun. "Can't say I know what it is, but it looks like it's headed for the village. Let's check it out." He took off in a light jog, leaving a small trail of dust as his sandals kicked up small clumps of dirt.

I groaned. I had been walking barefoot for a good hour or so. One foot was wounded. "This" I ground out, "is not okay." I started to jog to catch up and for once, it wasn't difficult. My feet may have hurt, but my legs have gone through longer runs. I would just have to tough it out.

We ran side by side for a while, and covered the ground pretty quickly. I could feel my heart race. 'Chances are, if Sam hasn't been messing with me the whole time, he didn't know what an airplane or drone is.' I hoped with all my might, 'Chances are, that in an area like here, there's bound to be an Airforce testing base or something.'

I had never seen such sparse land before. All around, for miles, were nothing but empty land, save the village. The land was grassy and hilly, but there were no people. It was the perfect place to test new aviation equipment. If anything went wrong, nobody would get hurt, no forests would be damaged, no property would be lost. Leveling an airstrip would be a small price to pay for said benefits.

At the prospect of knowing my location, I experienced a kind of euphoria that made the time seem to fly by. And before I knew it, we were in the center of the village.

The village was made up of about twenty to fifty buildings, all formed around a circle in the center. It was nothing fancy; all the buildings were single-story. The main road was mostly just dirt and dust, as were the three subsidiary roads that branched from the circle. Along these tributary streets were another couple of buildings. The circle itself was a wide dirt ring with a stage in the center, no doubt for small public demonstrations held among the locals.

Entering the circle, Sam and I approached a small but growing crowd of people who stood before the stage-structure. They were all looking up, so we followed. I could feel my heart sink as I recognized the sparkle from before, accompanied by a set of large leathery wings and a long tail.

Before me, and everyone else present, was a large lizard with wings. A dragon. It flapped its wings and descended upon us. Four claw-talon-feet things settled down on the wooden platform, making gentle clacking noises.

It would be fair to say that my jaw was on the floor. This was no animatronic. No gears or springs operated this beast. Beneath the thick, scaly skin on its jaw, sinewy muscle flexed and stretched. On its belly was a series of small metal plates tied together into a sort of armor. The armor attached to a leather saddle that rested upon the dragon's back. And upon the leather saddle, was a man in a mail tunic, leather pants and boots, and a shiny metal helmet.

At this moment I realized three very crucial things. First: Sam was not the misplaced individual. Second: I was the misplaced individual. And third: I wasn't getting home anytime soon.

"We're not in Kansas anymore," I said dumbly under my breath as realization slammed into me like a truck. This meant so many things. I was wrong about so many things. 'God damn… how did this happen?"

The armored man scanned the small group before him. Looking for someone, or something. As he checked us, I checked him. On closer inspection, the armor both he and his mount wore were in disrepair. I could see faint blurs of brown and orange where the protective gear had rusted. The leather bindings for the armor had frayed badly in some parts, and fist sized holes were present in his chain mail.

I turned to Sam, "What kind of monster is that?" I whispered. My voice quivered, panic undisguised. I was scared, but I wasn't just going to do something to get me killed. 'Who knows? The big lizard might only eat prey that it has to chase. I read that snakes do something like that…' my mind was on overload.

He turned to me, his expression was serious, like the one he had when he was inspecting me. "I reckon that's a wyvern. Never seen one before. Ma told me stories about them though."

The man looked around him once more. Whatever it was he was searching for, he didn't find it. "I come in peace," were the first words to leave his mouth. "I cannot tell you why I am here, but I need some food and money. If you have any to spare, then you will give it to me." His tone indicated command. He stood on elevated ground, seated atop a twenty foot lizard. Like hell anyone would put up a fight with him. "Leave it on this platform within half the hour. If I am not satisfied when I return, there will be consequences."

I turned, once again, to Sam. He seemed to be doing all the explaining to me. 'Funny,' I thought, 'considering that I believed I would be the one explaining the essential things of my world.' I guess I miscalculated the situation. I just had to miscalculate on this many levels.

"Sam," I started, "who is this guy?" It didn't seem right that some guy could just come and demand what he wanted. He was like the ultimate douche.

Sam shook his head. "I don't know, but chances are, we'll have to do as he says. He's got one of them magic doohickeys on him." He nodded towards the man's waist, where a small tome was attached via a thin, red string.

'Chances are, if he's got a dragon, he's probably got magic too.' I nodded in mute agreement.

"I desire 10 fithes of grain, and all the money you have. Satisfy this, and you will all live." With that said, the mysterious rider clicked his heels, and flew off.

The crowd that had gathered around him began to disperse into the buildings. At first, I thought that they were simply ignoring the man's commands, and returning to their business. But that thought quickly dissolved when men and women began returning with handfuls of coins and sacks that no doubt carried the grain the man requested.

"Why can he just take what he needs? Don't you want to fight back?" None of this made any sense to me. There were so many of them, and one of him. It would only take one fatal hit from a lucky villager to take him out. Even with his magic, weapons and armor, the man on the wyvern stood no chance against the fifty or so villagers assembled before him.

Sam shook his head, looking at the ground. "The guy has magic. None of us stand a chance against that. We don't even have real weapons. We might have wanted to fight back, but after my pa and half the others died trying... Well, we can't lose the other half."

"Oh." This word was becoming my catchphrase. The people couldn't rise up. Not even against one measly soldier. "So this guy has been on you for a while?"

Sam shook his head again. "It's a different guy every time. Sometimes we see two guys in a week, sometimes nobody comes for a month, or a couple months. If a guy comes, it means he was passing by, and happened to notice us. Usually, we're so secluded that people don't see us, or are too far away to, but lately, more people have been coming, and they're all wyvern men too."

"So that means we should go get something too. If we hold out on the guy, we'll die, right?" Man, just when I thought I understood the kid, the world has to come and screw me over with dragons, and magic and all this kind of bullshit.

Sam sighed this time, "I thought you were the one that couldn't answer all the questions. No, my family doesn't have any money. Nobody protects our village because we aren't technically part of a kingdom. We're basically a border tribe. But this means that we can get by without coin; we trade furs and cloth or other stuff for what we need around here. Only a couple of folks have money, and even then, not much of it."

I sat down on the dirt where I was standing, and Sam followed. I stared forward at the empty stage in front of us. "Sam, you weren't kidding when you said that you don't know what a bus is." I had to know for sure.

"I was not."

"And you were serious when you said we were in Ylisse?"

"I was. Although we don't pay taxes. Our relationship with them is kind of strange…"

"I'm sorry Sam."

"What for?"

"I made fun of you and laughed at your stories. I didn't take you seriously. I didn't believe you. But I guess I was wrong." I felt shame build up inside of me. I was an asshole to him, and he had the patience to answer all my questions and console my fear.

Sam grinned. "Aw, what are you saying that for? No hard feelings, I guess you just got lost and don't know anything about the place. I never told you this, but I met a boy from the city once. He was going to another city to see his gran'ma. Well, this boy didn't understand a word I said about farms, and I didn't understand a word he said about the city. But that didn't make him mean or anything. We just came from different places, that's all."

I was smiling too now, "Sam, you sure you don't know what school is? Because that was a good way of putting it."

He scoffed. "Who says I need school to be smart? Anyway, putting together words is easy if you are smart."

I laughed. 'I really like this kid now. When did that happen?' I glanced at the dirt and an idea came to me. I began picking out stones from the dust. "So as soon as that guy gets what he wants he'll be gone?"

"Sure. People like him aren't too bad anyway. They take what they can carry and that's it. It's not like they're willing to search us for what little money we have anyway, and 10 fithes of grain isn't much anyway. It's not like they can hurt us either, because they might need us for food later if they pass by again. They really are only a small, but scary, annoyance."

"Hm." I had cleared the pebbles in an arc around me, and set about flattening the ground there. Just like that, some of my fears, not all of them, had vanished. "Do they normally come by horse or something? You said you've never seen a wyvern before."

"Yeah. Wyverns have been coming quite a bit, lately, but I only heard about them, since I was off in the woods or something when they came by."

"Ok. How's this?" I asked. I pointed to the patch of dirt before us. It was about the size of a small poster, and it was cleared of rocks and sloppily leveled. "Draw something for me."

I expected Sam to smile, but he didn't. He wouldn't even look me in the eye. "I've never had anybody see me draw. It's kind of embarrassing…"

I laughed again. "How are you ever going to pursue your dream if you won't let anybody see you do it? You can't become a successful artist that nobody knows about."

"I… I guess you're right." He leaned forward in the dirt and began drawing, face becoming serious once again. Using his finger to make depressions in the dirt, he slowly, yet decisively, moved his hands.

I watched patiently as he drew in the dirt. 'Twenty-four hours ago, I would have thought I was crazy. Twenty-four hours ago, I didn't believe in dragons. Twenty-four hours ago…'

Time passed, and before I knew it. The wyvern returned. I still had a lot of unanswered questions, both about the place and how I got there, but I decided it would be best if I simply enjoyed things for a moment before delving into _that_ stuff. 'It can wait.'

I stared up as I heard the sound of the wyvern's roar. It shook the very Earth I stood on, and I shuddered for a moment, imagining what facing that thing would be like. As the dragon descended, a crowd gathered once again, drawn to the sound of its cry. The crowd this time was smaller, probably because nobody considered the prospect of danger.

When the dragon landed, the man dismounted and gathered up small sacks of grain that sat on the dirt in front of him. A couple measly copper coins sat in a small stack next to them. Sam and I sat and watched as he brought all of the goods and loaded them.

"I still don't like this guy." I muttered. Sam nodded in agreement.

After he had loaded everything onto the wyvern's saddle, and placed the coins in a pouch on his side, he turned to the gathered people. "I wish to thank you and apologize." He raised his left hand. "I wish to thank you for your generosity…"

'It's not like these people had a choice.'

"… And apologize for your destruction."

'… Wait, What?'

"You see, all of you have already witnessed my presence." He said calmly, "And I can't have anybody reveal that I was here. Better that people thought it was some brigand raid than that I was here." He raised his hands and started mumbling something.

'This is bad.'

A small pool of light was forming around the gauntlets of the wyvern rider. As this light gathered around him, he moved his hands to point toward a butcher shop with large meats hanging in the windows.

"Fire."

Upon his command, the pool suddenly gathered into a ball. The ball of light swirled momentarily before it shot out at the building, setting it aflame. There was no blast, no explosion. Only a burst of light, and then fire.

There was silence for a moment as the crowd failed to comprehend what had happened. It had all happened so quickly. One moment, he was about to leave, the next, he was shooting fireballs at people. After it had clicked, there was panic. The small number of people gathered screamed and fled. People who stayed inside poked their heads out of their doors and windows before joining. At the same time, the fire continued to spread.

Meanwhile, armored douchebag dismounted and began to chant, a little louder this time. He only had his left hand raised this time, drawing a single edged sword with the other. Another burst of light, and another building aflame. He began slashing and cutting at the people around him. In their confusion, they could not see what was coming, and fell. He was approaching us, and quickly too.

"Sam, we have to get out of here." I turned to Sam, who looked shocked and horrified, and I looked forward, but I was too late, he was upon us.

A rusty sword came forward in a stabbing motion meant to impale my gut.

"Watch out!" the youth dove from next to me, bringing me to the ground. I yelped in shock as the blade passed, but missed me. "Pretend you're dead." He whispered from on top of me. Sam had tackled me to the ground, leaving us both sprawled out uncomfortably.

'What? Why would that work?' The guy clearly missed me, and I was clearly still alive. There was no way he would simply walk away. I closed my eyes and braced for my death. But it didn't come.

Sam had been right… again. But for once, I was excited about it. Soon, the screams stopped and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the wyvern disembark. Shining armor glinting from atop.

I sat up immediately, "What? How did you know? Jesus, you sweat like a pig. It's all hot and sticky and… oh no."

I realized what had happened. Why the mage had walked away. I realized that Sam was not sweating, that he was bleeding. That he had been stabbed as he pushed me, and the mage had thought that two birds were killed with one stone. He rolled off my body weakly and moaned.

'Shitshitshitshitshit…'

I ripped my shirt off and pressed it against the dark red splotch below his armpit.

"I… I guess I'm a hero now…" Sam muttered dumbly.

"No, NO!" I shouted. "Why did you do that? Why, Sam? You barely know me. How could you do that to yourself? How am I going to live with this?" I was shouting now. "How am I going to live with this… Sam?

"George," he ignored me, "I'm sorry..." He was gasping for air, choking as blood filled his lungs. "You... Couldn't find home..." In his last moments, life burned brightly in his whole form, before it was abruptly whisked away. His body fell, limp in my arms.

"No." I whispered, "No, Sam. You're just a kid! Children don't die, not like this..." God, I was sobbing now. "Sam... Y-you still haven't t-told me about the snake you caught." But Sam wasn't listening. "Y-you told m-m-me that I h-had to know that one..."

"I want to be your friend, Sam."

Finally, the right words. They were too late.

His eyes were cold and dead, despite the warm glow of fire that reflected off of them. Blood trickled down the corners of his mouth, still open.

Still, something I had forgotten hours ago remained. In his right hand, clutched tightly, was the rabbit.

 **AN:**

 **Okay, so that's the prologue! It feels really exciting to be finally posting this, especially after so much time spent planning. Anyway, please review it! I'm always trying to find new ways to improve my writing, but if anyone has any recommendations, then I will be sure to put it into consideration. I'll also probably rewrite this chapter as time goes on and I get a better feel for where this story is heading. Thanks for reading this far and I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **AN:**

 **A shout-out to my first two reviewers: Xelixion and NekoPantera! Thanks for the support, guys! Anyway, on to the story!**

 **Ooookay. So that's that chapter. Kind of ended sadly. I know what you're all thinking: Why did I have Sam enter and die in the same chapter? Well… that's going to set my character up for what he's going to do in the future. (Hopefully) something creative.**

 **Also, I'm posting this sort of late at night, so any uber dumb things I did will hopefully be corrected as I continue revising the story. Don't worry, all minor things… hopefully. I don't plan on rewriting the whole chapter. Actually, I'll promise this much: If I am making changes to a story or chapter, I'll probably make them small unless the problem is super huge.**

 **Anyway, thanks so much for reading this far! I hope you all enjoyed it, and please review it so I can improve! Next chapter, things will finally start cranking and we'll be meeting some REAL characters! I know, it's so exciting!**

 **A shout-out to my first two reviewers: Xelixion and NekoPantera! Thanks for the support, guys! Anyway, on to the story!**

 **EDIT: So, I kept the old notes… not sure why. But I decided to combine these two chapters because its been bothering me that the chapter numbers don't line up with the numbers that gives them. I'm a little weird like that…**


	2. Chapter 2: A Step

**Okay… the Lighthouse here with another chapter, and boy is this one a doosey. Over eight thousand words! That's the longest chapter I've ever written, but I feel like it won't be for long.**

 **As promised, I have given y'all the canon characters and storyline, so yay! It's a real FanFiction now! I'm not quite sure how I'll develop all of the canon characters, or even if I'll develop them all (there's a lot of them), but yeah… I guess we'll just have to see how that goes.**

 **Anyway, I'll save the rest of my rambling for the end. Enjoy Chapter 2!**

Chapter 2: A Step

I spent the next day digging.

After Sam had… Well, I ran away from the village, up the large hill next to it. The screams echoed in my head, and I had difficulty seeing straight. It took me thirty minutes to get a quarter of the way. My feet hurt, but I didn't notice or I didn't care. Halfway up, I emptied my bowels and cried some. Feet hurting and eyes swollen, I passed out in the grass. Fear, anger, confusion and disgust swirled inside of me.

When I awoke, it was evening. I was still caked in mud. Dried tears now streaked my cheeks, and my skin and throat felt dry. As I moved into a sitting position, I felt rigid inside and out, and I had to shake myself to loosen my clothing, which had somehow stiffened with dry filth and sweat.

The setting sun stretched long haunting shadows over everywhere but the scene of the crime. From up on the hill, I could see the last of the flames struggling. Having exhausted their own source of life, the embers flickered feebly in the wind and threatened to blow out, but they persisted slowly. In spite of their weak state, they were able to illuminate the carnage enough to stay the swiftly approaching darkness a bit longer.

It was at this time that I sat up, and thought. My feet and ankles were swollen. The gash on the bottom of my injured foot would need to be cleaned. I was dirty, still wearing the rags that were once my favorite sleepwear. It was time that I digested what was going on.

'Okay…' I thought slowly, 'I am in the fictional land of Ylisse.' It was a start. 'I am in the land of Ylisse, where there are wars and bandits.' This was bad. 'I have been here since sometime between this morning and last night.' Why did this happen to me? 'I cannot go to college, see my friends and family or pursue my dreams.' This couldn't be real. 'I need to find a way back home.' But how? I had no answers.

"I'll just go to sleep." I guess thinking wasn't working. I lie back and closed my eyes to escape.

" _Ma'am, your son has been missing for several days now. What are you going to do?"_

 _I was surrounded by darkness and the voices swirled around me. I tried to recognize them._

" _I… I need some time to figure things out." That was mom._

" _Mom, where did George go?" My sister._

" _Nobody knows. It's the anomaly." I didn't know who that was._

 _The words began to fade into whispers._

" _I'll miss him…"_

" _When will… return?"_

"… _dead…"_

 _Silence._

 _But when silence had fallen, the darkness began to lift._

 _I was in a dimly lit room. A small bedside lamp shone in the corner. This was my room. My desk, my bed and my stuff was all there. All my stuff except, the GameCube. And me._

 _I looked down and saw the floor, not my feet. I tried to move, but my vision was rooted to the same spot in the air. People were taking stuff out. "Hey!" I tried to shout. No sound came. All around me, faceless men and women were taking my bed, my desk, my boxes, my curtains and my books. But there was nothing I could do. Then, when everything was gone, they took my room. I could see them take the walls. They brought hammers and broke them down and picked them up. Behind the walls was emptiness. The people around reached around, grabbing the pieces of my room, before into the darkness._

 _And everything was black and silent again._

When I woke up, it was just before dawn, when the air was still chilly from the night and a hazy light leaked around the edges of the horizon. There were no clouds and the moon hung in the corner of the sky. The town was nothing but a black-grey smear of charcoal and ash on the hazy yellow plain around them.

I didn't gasp and sit up, like I half expected to. I simply opened my eyes and blinked rapidly as consciousness came to me instantly. 'I'm really hungry…' That's right. I hadn't eaten in a day, something I never did. But there was no food, 'guess I'll have to find some eventually.'

I went down to the village and decided I should at least bury what bodies I could find. I wasn't going back to sleep after that dream and thinking about it would go nowhere. 'It was just a nightmare. Besides, it would be disrespectful not to do something for them.'

And that was how I got to digging.

It shouldn't have been difficult work, physically. I managed to find a spade in a field, but without shoes, it was hard to drive it into the ground. The ground was dry and sandy though, with few rocks, so I got by. I started digging in a spot just east of the village, assuming the sun did rise in the east. In a couple hours, I had some small, shallow, and pretty depressing looking graves, but they were graves nonetheless.

The fire had cremated most of the villagers. So in the end, I only had to dig about 20 shallow graves for the people that had died.

Then, I gathered what bodies, or body parts I could in the village and promptly lost my appetite for at least the remainder of the day.

One body was an elderly man who had sustained a slash across the chest. When I picked him up, he was rigid with rigor mortis. He was thin and frail, and his skin was rough and damaged from all of the work he had done under the sun. His clothes were slashed and browned and every bit of him reeked of rotting flesh. I had to be careful to ensure his organs didn't spill out when I brought him.

'This is so many levels of wrong.'

Another was a young woman who had lost her head. As I brought her body to the graveyard, I could feel bile rising up my throat. Not only had the stench of decaying matter come off her, but her burned and blackened arms gave off a particularly disgusting smell that I can only assume was of burnt flesh.

All of the bodies were like this and some weren't bodies at all. A limp hand sat on the wooden stage in the center of the village, the only structure that hadn't been burned down. There was a bodiless leg a few yards away from where I had left Sam. I brought all of them, and with each one, my desire to run away and vomit and cry grew. I brought Sam's body last, along with the now rotting rabbit.

I buried each of them in their own grave, pouring dirt over their lifeless bodies. I put the limbs with no owners together in their own grave. In the center, was where Sam rested. I don't know what I was thinking, but before I placed the dry, powdery earth on him, I placed the rabbit on his chest and moved his arms so that he was cradling it.

By the time I had finished, it was afternoon and I was tired and sweaty. I felt weak and pathetic. I wasn't supposed to be here, someone had been kind to me and how did I return the favor? A couple shallow graves. Nothing else. I wanted to stay and pay my respects or something.

I had to keep going, though. One thing was clear. 'If I really am in Awakening, I need to get to Southtown, I can figure out what I want to do on the way. But I _need_ to get somewhere safer. Before I do that...' I eyed the ruins warily, 'I might want to check for tools or money.' I didn't want to do it, but they were dead, it's not like they wanted it. I needed it too, without stuff, I would probably end up in the ground with them. 'I really am a terrible person.'

When I got to the village, I began searching for anything usable. As expected, mostly everything had burned to the ground. Half an hour of scouring only revealed several dirty knives, a silver pendant, a small, empty sack and another, larger sack of grain.

I dumped what grain I could into the smaller sack before carefully wrapping the knives in my raincoat and putting everything into the large sack. The coat was ruined anyway. I hoisted everything onto my shoulder and took the largest street out of town, my best guess at the direction of Southtown.

The sun was high, and I was beginning to feel the effects of exhaustion and dehydration. The heat waves came off the dry soil beneath my raw feet. The saying goes: "A person can go a week without food, but less than three days without water." Or something like that. Well, it's probably true. It was only my second day, but I was feeling like I needed some water pretty badly.

I had never gone without shoes for such a long walk, let alone a couple days. I sighed forlornly as I imagined my sneakers in my garage, where they were probably sitting around, useless.

Thinking of that reminded me of home. Thinking of home reminded me of my family. Mom and dad, I wonder what they're thinking right now. Do they miss me? What about my brother and sister? I had a whole family back there, did they notice my disappearance? How do they feel about it? And what about that dream I had? 'I wonder if time passes on a different scale here.'

I heard about that in a couple books and movies about space. Some people get whisked away to a place where the gravity is different or something and they come back home to find that they're younger than their kids. What if I go home, and I'm still eighteen, while everyone else has gotten older and has moved on? What if time moves in the opposite direction here?

I instinctively pulled my iPod out of my pocket and clicked the power button. Nothing. "Of course its broken," I grumbled. I had no idea what the date was, or what the date and time system even was. Being in a different world sucked.

'For all I know, there could be 500 days in a year, and 16 hours in a day. If hours even lasted the same length here. There could be different seasons, or no seasons entirely. I have no scope.

'On Earth, the seasons were a result of the Earths tilted axis of rotation with respect to the Sun. Basically, the Earth was spinning with the north pole towards the Sun sometimes, and away from the Sun other times. I am truly lost.

'Here, the north pole could always be pointing away from the Sun. Or there could be no north pole at all! The north and south poles were caused by...'

My mind was in overdrive panic mode again, and I knew it. 'Mom isn't here… No, Sam isn't here to calm me down.' The kid couldn't explain the nuances of this place to me, he couldn't guide me through this terrifying world. I was alone. I was alone and afraid and confused because...

"Sam is dead." I whispered to myself. I suppose I had tried to ignore it.

The words instantly sobered me, like a splash of cold water to the face. Sam _died_. He wasn't just some NPC or sprite. Sam was a person. He was guy with desires, dreams, fears and disappointments. And just as soon as I had gotten to know him, he was gone.

"Shit..." Sam's death had come too quick, as had the destruction of the village. It wasn't anything like in the movies. One moment, the village stood intact, the next, there was no village. No extended badass battles, no monologues and no music ever occurred. It was the definition of anticlimactic. Some guy had literally walked in, taken some food and money, and burned them to the ground. Nobody deserved to die in such a way.

'And yet it happened.' I thought, 'It happened and it will happen.' This was really awful. The image of the burning boats before Valm flashed before my eyes, only this time, I heard the screams and saw the horrors of the previous afternoon. 'If this really is Awakening, then Robin has or will meet Chrom. They will fight countless people. People like Sam. People like Sam's mother, and his father. They will fight those people and kill them.' I took a deep breath.

That also meant that they were people like Sam. Chrom and Robin and even Grima were going to be people. They too, would have dreams and life changing experiences and joys and fears. 'When I join them, I'll have to remember that.'

'Wait… when?' I didn't want to kill people, no matter what the cause. The Shepherds would kill people. I had no doubt in that. If I followed the Shepherds, though, then I could find a way to bargain some resources and maybe even get their support into finding a way home.

Home. 'Do I want to go home?' It almost felt wrong. Sam had died to protect me, explained the world and offered me kindness despite my rude first impression. I practically ordered him around and we had barely known each other for half a day, yet he didn't abandon me. Guilt rose in the pit of my stomach as I wondered the question aloud this time. "Do I want to go home?" Going home meant that I was willing to leave. It meant that I might be willing to forget Sam. Was that fair to him?

Home was where my dreams and aspirations lie. I was just thinking about how badly I wanted to be there. If I was home, I could actually study to become an aerospace engineer. I could go to space, maybe even the moon. At home, I had family and friends that had supported and endured with and through me for almost twenty years. If I left them, would that be fair?

'No. It wouldn't be fair to them. For all Sam has done for me, my world has done just as much, probably more. I have to get out of this hellhole before too much time has passed.' If I was going home, I wanted to go before I was fifty and that meant going to Southtown.

'And then what?' I shrugged. 'Whatever will be, will be.'

I looked around. It had been a couple hours since I had left the village, and I still had no idea where I was going. I guess not many people used these farm roads. The air was still dry, and the forest was totally gone now. I could see no traces of it. The hills faded away and now the land was actually flat. Long stalks of yellowed grass stretched out for miles around, but now small patches of green were popping around.

I think I was starting to hear some flowing water, but it might have been a trick of the mind.

The next couple hours passed slowly. I was getting too tired to think straight. I really felt miserable and I thought more than once about stopping. It might have been better to slow down and consider my options. 'I have no options.' I had to repeat the words in my head. I was alone on the trail. If I stopped and something happened, it would be the end of me.

By the time night had fallen, my energy had gone. I was no longer sweating. Legs and back aching, I lie down on the grass around me. I didn't bother to move after that. My appetite had returned, but I thought better than to eat the dry wheat berries in the sack I carried. My thirst had outdone my hunger.

I closed my eyes and fell into a light sleep.

The third morning was the first morning I woke up rested. My throat was parched. I was sore and still scared and confused, but things were beginning to look up. I no longer wanted to vomit. I had no nightmares. And the sky was overcast, which meant rain, which meant water. An hour into my trek, it began to thunder. Thirty minutes after that, it drizzled and only seconds later, the rain came falling in earnest.

Never have I felt so blessed by water. I shouted incoherent words of joy as the water struck my face. I opened my mouth and let the drops enter the parched cavity. The clear fluid streamed down my body, exposing skin where there had once been dirt. It also soaked into my clothes and hair, but I didn't mind.

Overall, it did little for my dehydration. But I was rested and my insides were no longer dry, so it was a brief respite from the toils of the previous day.

Anyway, the morning was more or less uneventful after the rain had passed. The grain had become soaked and ruined, so I dumped it. The scenery changed gradually and the grass and shrubs around had become greener and greener. By noon, the landscape had become hilly again, only now, it was a verdant with thick stalks of vegetation. I could also feel my lack of sustenance catching up to me.

Somewhere along the way, I met a traveler. I can't recall his appearance, aside from his brown hair and dark clothing. Our time was a flash, we greeted one another, I managed to get directions, and we parted ways. He had his places to go, and I had mine.

After that, I don't remember much. Funny, how one moment, things were looking up and the next moment I was struggling. I must have lost some of my mental capacity as I became dehydrated again and my hunger began to set in harder than ever. They never mentioned it in the games, but food could be a real issue in this place. The roads were basically trails through wilderness, so travel was a serious thing.

Despite that, I lived. Somehow, I found my way in the small city of Southtown. It may have been a couple days after I met the traveler, or it may have been a couple hours. I don't remember. Either way, I found my way to the city gates.

'Hm… People.' I thought distractedly as I approached what appeared to be the west entrance of the city. People were entering and exiting the place in small numbers, most of whom gave me an odd look. 'I wonder why they're looking at me like that.' I looked down. My clothes were ragged and torn. My feet were dirty. I reached up to my hair, and felt that it was oily and nasty. 'Figures. I'm disgusting.'

I roamed around the city until I found an inn. I stepped inside and dumped the sack, which I somehow brought with me, on the ground.

"Can this get me a meal and a night here?" my voice was crackled and dry. God I must have looked ridiculous.

A waitress-inn lady? looked me up and down skeptically and then looked through the bag. She took out the bundled up knives, before placing them aside, and pulled out the pendant. It must have looked valuable enough because she led me to a table. The knives, on the other hand, turned out to be junk she tossed the bundle and the sack into what seemed to be a trash can. I guess most stuff ended up there anyway.

"You must take a bath before you can use one of our rooms," she said as she handed me a key. "I can only get you some stew. If you'd like, I could get you something to drink. Anything you'd like?"

I nodded blankly. "Anything you got." I said hoarsely.

She disappeared and reappeared with food and some yellow drink. She handed me a key. "Your room number is 13. You can find it by walking around the back and taking the stairs up."

I was already filling my face with food and drink. I nodded and she left. In no time the food and what must have been some kind of beer was gone. I sat and digested, and as that happened, my brain began to realize that food and water was no longer critical. I slowly became more self-aware and began to take better notice of my surroundings.

It was a dark and musty building, with wooden floors and stone walls. The ceiling too was wooden. Tables and chairs littered the dining area and only a couple people sat around, talking and eating. The lady I had talked to was standing behind a counter with a woman with silver hair who was no doubt the innkeeper. I looked back in front and noticed that there were no utensils. A plate with some bread crumbs, an empty bowl and an equally empty mug sat on the table before me. Nothing else.

'I guess I just drank the soup.' I was feeling awfully drowsy. I really wanted to go to sleep right then and there, but I still had to take a bath. 'Damn, I smell.' I left the inn and followed the waitress's directions to the bathhouse.

I'd never been to a public bathhouse before, so I didn't really know what to expect. I've used public showers plenty of times, but those had stalls and operated more or less the same as their private counterparts. I do know what I didn't expect: a bunch of naked people in a puddle of water. Granted, it was a wide and deep puddle of _hot_ water; it still wasn't exactly what I would call my comfort zone.

The building itself was made of stone, and had tile flooring made of wide pieces of slate that had been laid out in the mud. A couple fires burned in small braziers in the corners of the bathhouse, which made the air inside hot and stuffy.

I stepped forward from where I had been in the doorway and closed the door behind me. I tried my best to avoid eye contact with the other men in the bath and stripped down. For once, I was glad I had no glasses. 'God, this is awkward.' I could feel the eyes of the other men bearing into me as I stepped inside the bath, and I could tell why now.

On my way to the bathhouse, I had noticed that people were staring at me. At first, I felt uncomfortable and embarrassed. I figured it was my dirty appearance. As I kept walking, though, I noticed that there were plenty of others just as dirty as I was. People walked with mud and blood smeared on their faces, shuffling through large piles of dirt at either edges of the streets. Nobody paid any attention to them.

The city may have been a cultural hub in Southern Ylisse, but that didn't speak for the world. Thus, Ylisse seemed to reflect the culture, habits and genome of Medieval Europe. I was an American born of Korean parents, so it wasn't a far stretch to suppose that I was an exotic thing to see. All things of race aside, I _did_ look different. My skin tone was a little different, my eyes were smaller, and I had straight, black hair.

I guess that sort of attracted attention.

So, there I was, a mostly Asian guy stepping into a large bath with a bunch of men I didn't know. "A couple of days ago, I wouldn't believe that I'd be getting naked with strange men." I grumbled as I took care not to slip as I stepped in. I squinted as I looked around for soap. 'Maybe soap hasn't been invented here?' that was a scary thought.

To my great relief, there was soap. I washed myself rigorously, like I was trying to remove the stress and frustration I felt about my hopeless situation. As I washed, I made sure to check my limbs for damage. My arms and hands were fine, as were my legs, although I had thinned down quite a bit. Frankly, I looked like a stick.

My greatest concern were my feet. The bandaging around my injured foot had come away, and the first cut had healed marginally. Along with that, however, came a plethora of other small nicks, scrapes and scratches that covered both of my feet. They had more or less become swollen red lumps attached to my ankles. I promised to get myself shoes soon.

The bath felt really good. While I may have been just as incapable and ignorant as before, at least I was clean. Of course, all pleasant feelings must sometime, come to an end.

To my great disappointment, I had forgotten to bring a towel. To my even greater misfortune, I had failed to bring clean clothes. 'Clean, I am. But dirty, I will be as soon as I put on these clothes.' Yoda would be proud.

I had to try my best to cheer myself up. If I didn't I'd have died a blubbering mess in the village.

I let out a slightly-less-aggravated breath as I stepped out of the bath, tried my best to shake the water off my body— something that had not gone without a few strange looks from the not-so-few men who had come prepared— and returned into my sweaty, muddy, bloody and slightly ripped plaid pajamas. I felt like a fool. Before the bath, the clothes had felt normal. Now that I was clean, the shirt felt stiff with filth, and the pants felt nasty with grime. I just ignored it and went back to the inn.

By the time I had arrived at my room, night had fallen. The bath had managed to fill me with some life for all of two minutes. When I had finally managed to return to the inn, my energy had plummeted to the lowest it had ever been. I unlocked the door, stepped in, and fumbled around before finally collapsing in a bed for the first time since my arrival. I removed my clothes to keep the bed clean, of course. My eyes closed and I fell into a blissful slumber.

Morning came as a gentle whisper. Not the hangover of the first day, or the creeping grip of consciousness on the following days. Morning came subtly.

I was first awoken by the first rays of the day's light through my window. I blinked slowly as I recalled the events of the previous few days. And then I remembered something important: I was in a bed. I had slept in a _bed_. It was nothing fancy, but it had a mattress and that's what counted.

I turned over and stared at the dark boards above me. So much had happened since I came here. 'First order of things, how to handle not freaking out.' I grinned, this was beginning to sound too ridiculous. 'For now, I'll just ignore the problems that don't have to do with getting home. The best way to not lose my sanity, is to focus on a single objective. If I think about magic and dragons and killing and wars and…' Fuck. It was happening again. 'If I think about any of that shit, then I'll never get home.'

"Great." I sat up. "That was perfectly simple… Now what do I do?" I stared blankly at the door in front of me. 'This is either game or somebody's poor idea of a FanFic, so the way out is probably just to beat it.' At least I hoped so. 'If it isn't then I won't know what to do.' I paused. 'Come on, George, think of the positives. I've played the game. I know what's gonna happen. They also speak English here, that's gotta count for something!'

'I could also be in a coma' I thought as cheerfully as I could.

I stood up and grabbed the broken iPod from the pants pocket. I don't know why I kept it, guess it was the only thing to remind me of home. Then, I made for the door. I cast a scornful look at the heap of dirty clothes on floor. No way in hell was I putting those on again.

I put a hand on the doorknob, and something in my mind clicked. Gears turned. I looked at the clothes again, and then I looked down.

'Fuck.'

"First order of things: find new clothes."

I was sitting on the edge of a long street lined with shops and other buildings, in my dirty pajamas. People milled around me going from building to building. I had returned the key and left the inn a couple hours ago. Since, I've spent most of the morning—and some of the noontime—trying to think of the best way to acquire new clothing. My current garb of nightwear was still filthy, torn, and on me.

I had considered stealing, but the issue with that was the getaway. If I got caught, I would need to run and I wasn't sure my feet were up to it. That and stealing was not my groove. People worked hard for that shit, and I wasn't just gonna take it.

Anyway, this place wasn't like the village, it was large and guarded. I could see people in uniforms milling around, occasionally asking for passports or some kind of document, before continuing to go about their business.

'I guess I need to get some kind of identification. Or else…' I watched a man fail to take out his document. The guards seized him and dragged him away to god-knows-where. 'They must have some pretty strict rules around here. That sucks.'

Now that it was day, and I wasn't dying of thirst and hunger, I could tell a lot more about the city than before. I noticed that all the buildings were at least two stories tall, a few lucky ones were three. Quite a few featured glass windows on the lower levels, although the upper levels had none. Piles of dirt lined the streets in alleyways. The roads were cobbled now, instead of dirt. And there were canals every couple of streets or so, which had some dark, nasty looking water flowing through them. When I came to think of it, this Southtown was nothing like the one in the game.

The city in the game was much smaller. Like, tiny small. And nobody was around to protect it. Here, buildings stretched out pretty far, not on the scale of New York or Los Angeles, but it was still fairly large compared to the village I had visited previously. Also, all it took was a little looking around to find a guard or two milling around on the streets. It was easy telling them apart from civilians and others because of the matching leather armor and crest on their helmets.

Speaking of guards, doesn't this place get raided by bandits in the first level? How does a small, yet developed city get raided by bandits anyway? 'You'd think that the guards would have prevented them from entering.'

A scream shot out from the edge of the city, followed by distant shouts of "Bandits! Bandits!"

'Well,' I thought, getting up, 'Looks like I'm about to get my answer.'

I began walking against the flow of the crowd, toward the sound of the shouts. Soon I could hear the shouts of the bandits as well and I turned the corners of the buildings carefully. When I had gotten to an alleyway and could hear the steps of the bandits, I slowed down and took stock of my surroundings. I knew that they were right around the corner.

It was a little past noon—I had determined that the length of a day in Ylisse is the same as the length of a day on Earth—and the alley was dimly lit as the shadows of the surrounding brick buildings. Piles of smelly dirt and trash lined one side of the alley. Otherwise, it was empty. On the other side, I crept close to the wall, trying to avoid making too much noise. I peeked around the wall and caught my first glimpse of in-game enemies.

The man on the wyvern I met on my first day was brutal, efficient, and apathetic. He did not care for the people before him. He had desired their death, and so it had come.

The men before me may have been brutal and terrible, yes, they were stealing and pillaging as they pleased. But they were neither efficient nor apathetic. I took a close look, and their axes bore no blood and their threats were empty. From a distance, I could see a few of their blurry shapes swing shiny axes around, but I could also see the foggy shadows of civilians running, somehow getting away every time. If they wanted everyone dead, they could have had it done in a couple minutes, tops. However, there were no dead bodies from what I could see. 'Thank God for that. I don't know if I could stomach it again.' Instead, the most of the men roamed around and placed the objects of their desire in sacks.

'So then what are these guys doing?' This puzzled me. These bad guys were either generated on easy mode, or they honestly wanted to die. It didn't make sense to be so flashy and scary when you were the bad guy. 'Unless...'

"Unless what?" I wondered quietly. I looked across the marketplace the brigands were looting. 'This place has a really good view,' I chuckled, despite the situation. It was like watching the bad guys on TV. They were all show.

"Hey you!" I whipped my head around. It was one of the bandits. Don't know how he got there, but it didn't really matter too much. "Give me your money!" He swung his axe menacingly from where he stood, meters away. Once again, cartoon bad guy. Regardless, my smile vanished and I trembled a little.

He was tall, maybe six foot, six inches. I was five-ten, and he loomed over me. Aside from his gargantuan body, he looked more or less like a civilian. His hair and beard were brown. He wore a yellowish shirt and brown pants, sort of like the ones I saw in the movies, and on his feet were some very comfortable looking boots.

'Even the silly bad guys in cartoons are scary if you're seeing him from the point of an axe.' I took a deep breath, 'Just play it cool, George… play it cool.' Who knows, maybe the guy has a sense of humor?

"I don't have any." Might as well tell the truth. "I was actually hoping you might lend me some." I tried to smirk. 'Oh shitshitshitshitshit…' Images of my first night flashed back into my mind. I did not want to lose any limbs. Hell, I didn't want to see anybody lose limbs.

'Just keep smiling…' I tried to look happy. 'I hope he's a nice bad guy… that was stupid.'

The bandit was not amused, at least he didn't appear to be. He closed the distance between us, grabbing the collar of my shirt and pulling me close to him. I got a close up view of his face. It was older than I had first thought, maybe forty. "Don't fuck with me." He shoved me onto the hard, stone ground. "Listen, I don't want to hurt you," he was brandishing the axe now and I suddenly became aware of how sharp it looked, "but if you know what's good for you, you'll empty your pockets, or run."

"Why?" I couldn't help but ask. If the guy really wanted me dead, then he would have killed me by now. In spite of his threats, he was letting me go. He was telling me to run. It didn't make sense. Wasn't he the bad guy? Didn't he want me dead?

His terrifying façade fell instantly. It was almost comical.

'Maybe he is nice?'

"I'm a thief, not an asshole. We fight when we need to, and take what we want. At least, that's what the boss says." He shrugged, axe falling to his side.

I nodded numbly, still silently freaking out. "So you won't kill me?"

He laughed, "Not unless you give me reason to. I want your money, not your life." His smile disappeared. "But if you don't hand over whatever it is you have, you better be ready to run. Our protocol strictly states that we search anybody we can get our hands on for money. I'm a bandit, you're supposed to run away. Didn't you know this?"

I shook my head.

He grinned, "Since I'm nice, I'll turn around and let you run. Plus, I believe that you don't have any money. But don't you forget what I've told you. Some people aren't as forgiving as me." With that, he turned around and started jogging away. As he rounded a corner, he muttered something barely audible.

"Poor bastard." I wondered if I even heard it.

"Holy shit." I gasped. I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath. Even if the guy had been nice, all it would have taken was a change of heart to end my life. I slowly got up and brushed myself off. 'I am never going to watch one of those stupid, Saturday morning cartoons again.'

One thing now made sense to me: the bandits' poor act of the bad guy. It was as the giant had said, they were in it for the money. The brigands didn't want anybody dead, or even hurt. They just wanted to scare everybody away to make easy pickings of what was left behind. They probably came in disguised as civilians, and whipped out their weapons when everything was in place. That way, nobody got hurt and they could loot the large amounts of wealth that dwelled in the city. It was actually very smart.

I jogged towards a building just outside the alley and across the street. It looked relatively safe and empty. Whoever had been inside must have fled at the first word of bandits.

Inside, was a small clothing store. This was a gift, maybe. Clean shirts, pants, and even underwear of assorted sizes lined the musty walls around me. As if to put a cherry on it all, a pair of boots sat in the corner. 'What do I do?' I wanted to wear something clean for once. I wanted to grab one of the shelves right away, to put on those boots then and there. Taking them would be, well, stealing. I wanted to take a moment and assess the situation. I wanted to come up with a good excuse to take them, but it was too late.

I had already gingerly reached up and selected a few things off the shelves. I didn't want to steal, but I sure as hell needed a pair of new clothes. 'Besides,' I started to rationalize, 'I'm not gonna rob the guy blind. It's only one outfit.' I hurriedly picked the plainest shirt, pants, and – what did they call them? Smallclothes? — underwear that I could find and changed as quickly as I could. I prayed that nobody would walk in. It would be pretty tragic if one of those brigand people happened to catch me changing.

Luckily for me, nobody did. I then took the liberty of grabbing a small pouch off of the counter. It was pretty obviously a wallet of some kind. I could feel it jingle with the sound of coins, and so I dumped most of them onto the counter. I wasn't going to rob him blind. I just needed enough to get by for the day. I had no idea how the currency system worked, so I just took my best guess at what was enough. I placed my iPod inside along with the money that I was keeping.

'I need to get out of here.' I didn't want to be there when the owner came in. Maybe, he'd just think that it was the brigands who took his stuff.

On my way out, I noticed several belts that were on a rack and grabbed one that fit me pretty well, putting it on. I looped the pouch onto the belt and headed out onto the street, which was silent and empty. It felt so good to walk in shoes. I didn't realize how much I had missed them. It felt like I was floating. I started jogging around, careful to avoid any more thieves. I would most certainly get mugged if I got caught again.

'Don't think about what you just did. How you just stole money and clothes. Don't think about it.' I had no choice but to think about it. 'Okay, time to tell myself some bullshit to make me feel better. I needed the stuff, and he or she won't miss it. It was just a couple of things. I'll pay the store owner back someday.'

It didn't help, but I wasn't just about to go back to having nothing. 'I guess this is how people end up becoming thieves and joining gangs and stuff.' They were probably decent people who just didn't have any other way. 'Ah, dammit.' I didn't want to become one of them. "I will definitely figure out a way to pay the guy back." I said the words aloud as if it was a promise to myself.

I looked around. I had stepped out into the marketplace area that was the map for the first part of the game. I walked over behind a crate next to a building and looked at the scene in front of me.

'So that's why it was so empty.' The streets I had been running through were eerily silent. There were no people, and the reason for that became clear. In the square in front of me, the bandits were gathering. They must have been preparing to make their escape. Several guards ran around as well, attempting to block their exits and brace for fighting. The surrounding roads had been empty because the civilians remained evacuated and the bandits had lured the guards away.

'Hm. I guess that I'll see Robin and the others come in some time.' I looked at the sky, it was late afternoon. If they didn't come soon, they would be too late and the brigands would have made off.

As if on cue, Chrom, Robin, Frederick, and Lissa came in. I wasn't actually certain if it was them, but I did see four fuzzy blobs run in on the other side of the marketplace. One had a blue circle for a head, another was brown, and the third had a yellow sort of "V" shape to it.

'Hmm.' I squinted to get a better look at the fourth one. Robin's appearance was the standard one: male, somewhat shaggy, white hair and a light frame. 'I suppose whoever wrote this fic isn't very creative.' I shook my head. 'I could also be in a play through of the game.'

The four got right to work. They gathered in a corner on the other side of the square. It must have been the starting in-game dialogue because I could see the fuzzy people shaking their heads and all that. It was the expected routine.

Wow, I needed glasses.

What was not expected was the next thirty minutes of fighting. I didn't see it, because I closed my eyes, but I could hear it. I could still hear the gurgled screams of men getting stabbed in the chest. I could hear the sound of people yelling and the clash of steel on steel. The sound of what must have been magical explosions was deafening.

I wanted to run away. The sudden sound of pain and death startled me, so I curled into a ball where I was, behind the stacks of wooden boxes. I wanted so badly to go into my room and close the door and spend the next hour in my bed. But I could not. There was no room, I had no bed and most importantly of all, it had to happen. If this didn't happen, then the game wouldn't progress. If those brigands didn't meet their end, then I would be stuck here.

It had to happen, because it was the way the story went.

After half an hour of cowering behind a crate, I stood and opened my eyes. I was happy I didn't have my glasses. The men who had died were nothing more than dark, red splotches in my vision. I didn't see the gore I saw on the first day, and I wouldn't need to, because the gang approached me.

'I guess I should be excited.' I thought absently. I've always thought it would be cool to meet badass videogame characters. Sometimes I even _wanted_ it to happen. But after the past couple of days, 'I guess I just ran out of fucks to give.'

"Hello," The blue blob from before walked toward me, focusing into what was unmistakably Prince Chrom. Well, the 3DS version of Chrom didn't compare, and the sight of him was strange and alien. Every person I met so far had either blonde, brown, grey or black hair. There was something very unsettling about seeing a naturally blue-haired person. It was also very weird to see somebody from a video game. The other characters followed behind him, also coming into focus.

"Hi," I answered nervously.

"My name is Chrom. I have taken care of the bandits, and I mean no harm to the city, I only wish for directions to the north exit." He must have thought I was a local, which was pretty weird, considering I looked nothing like the locals. Even with my change of clothes, I still had an unmistakably Asian face.

"Um… er… I'm actually kind of lost," I muttered sheepishly. "I don't quite know how I got here, and I definitely don't know how to get out."

'Now's my chance. If I'm going to join the Shepherds and beat this game, now is the time.' I took a deep breath.

I couldn't pay for my clothes as it was. I almost died twice in the past few days. Three times if dying of thirst counts. And I was lost and needed resources to get home. The solution to most of those problems shows up on a silver platter and what, I don't want to kill people? Like hell. I'll just stay in the back or something. 'I don't have weapons so they can't force me to fight anyway.'

"But, if I could stay with you for a while, then I might be able to find my way home." It wasn't the complete truth, but they probably wouldn't believe the complete truth anyway.

"Of course!" Chrom exclaimed.

"Milord." I could see Frederick now. The game did a good job portraying him. His face, hair and overall appearance matched the game art perfectly. Once again though, looking at him in person had a completely different effect to seeing the pixelated, animated version. "Must I remind you to be cautious around strangers? Honestly, this man could be— "

"Gods Frederick!" the blue haired prince whipped around. Chrom must have been getting worn down by Frederick's wary nature. "Must I remind you what our duties are as shepherds?"

"No, Milord." Frederick stopped talking, but he kept watching me.

"Good, then let's take care of these lost sheep."

I tried my best to look away from the bodies as we navigated the square. I tried my best to look up, or at the blue head in front of me, anywhere but down. Something within me wanted otherwise. Some morbid curiosity managed to take control of my body and I sneaked a peek at the first body we passed.

It was the merciful bandit. He had sustained several major stab wounds to the chest. I managed to keep my gaze up after that.

We walked in silence for a while before encountering a couple of the city residents. There was some more in-game dialogue, which I zoned out of, and we were out of the city. As the five of us stepped out, I noted that there were no gates on the north side. I shrugged and continued to stroll along.

'This is some helluva thing I just got myself into.' I figured I might as well go along.

Several things nagged at the back of my mind. The bandit who had mercy on me, the characters in the game and Sam still remained in my thoughts. Maybe I wanted to forget them, it might have been simpler that way. As I walked along the Prince, Tactician, Princess and Knight, however, I had a feeling my stay in this world would be anything but simple.

 **AN:**

 **Wheew. I'm not particularly proud of this chapter. Then again, I'm not particularly proud of the other chapters either, but… I tried? Anyway, I'll definitely return to these first few chapters and try to improve them later. For now, the story goes on!**

 **Expect to see a chapter for every level in the game now because we've hit the storyline from the game now. Of course, that isn't strictly speaking. Another thing to expect is hints at pairings! Don't know what exactly to do with them… I have done a little thinking about it, but that's all a secret.**

 **Anyway, thanks a lot for reading it and let me know what you think by reviewing it. It's really worth a lot to me and it means better chapters for you!**


	3. Chapter 3: Ylisse

**Hey guys! Back with another chapter.**

 **So, I lied about a number of things.**

 **The first thing: The avatar will be named Robin. That's how I see him, that's probably how you see him, and there was nothing really obviously bad with the name. I found that I didn't really like the other name I had for him too, so there. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just ignore this.**

 **The second thing: I will not be rewriting the previous chapters. Why? I'm lazy. Well, that's only part of it. More importantly, I want to get the rest of the story out, and as much as I would love to make sure that my previous chapters are perfect, I want to keep moving on as well. Also, a reviewer noted that it's my first fanfic, and I guess I'm kind of sentimental, so I'll leave it for future me to read.**

 **The third thing: a chapter for every level in the game is not going to happen. Why? Weeeeell… let's just say some unconventional stuff is going to happen.**

 **The fourth thing: just kidding! Let's just get on to the story!**

Chapter 3: Ylisse

I proceeded to pester Chrom with questions for the next few hours. Introductions amongst the other members of the group had been quite simple, and for the most part, I didn't really pay attention. Foreknowledge meant that I didn't need to. Anyway, now that Chrom knew my name, I was practically family. At least, if the game was any indication of his character.

I found that their world and mine were mostly the same. The moon was close enough to play a role in tides; there were four seasons over the course of twelve months in a year; the months were conveniently identical to the ones on Earth; there was only one sun; there was a north star, and giant monsters did not usually come and eat people. That last one was pretty out of the blue, but who knew what could happen?

"Chrom, what kind of plants grow here? Have you heard of tomatoes?" The game doesn't go too far into detail here, and I most certainly was not going to eat man-sized slugs or other oddities.

Chrom groaned, "Yes. I have heard of tomatoes. I'm no botanist, though. You're going to have to find one for the first bit."

'Great. So biology here is more or less the same as that on Earth, which means no weird food.' Actually, I already knew the dinner menu for the night, so I should have known the plant and animal life should have been relatively similar to what I was used to. 'I wonder what bear tastes like.'

Robin and Lissa were busy discussing something. Frederick was riding his horse behind me. I could feel his gaze burning into my back, and I was almost certain he would repeatedly grab at his spear every once in a while. The prince and I walked in silence for a while and I retreated into my thoughts.

It felt remarkable to actually have an idea of when and where I was, even if it was in a completely different universe. It had been scary having no sense of what to do or where to go. Even if it meant that I had no responsibilities, I still needed to take care of myself. Otherwise I would die.

I shuddered. All of that was behind me now because I was with the Shepherds. I didn't exactly know what I would do, but I didn't really care. Well, that wasn't entirely true. I had a bunch different thoughts going through my head. A part of me hoped there was a way back home faster than beating the game. A part was just glad to be alive. A part was worried about whether I was in good hands, and a part kind of wanted to get to know the characters. There was also no small amount of concern for the deaths I've seen, but I just ignored that part.

Speaking of characters, the avatar's name had turned out to be Robin, which was pretty unoriginal, but I was fine with that. I just hoped that he turned out to be less ambiguous than he did in the game. As with Chrom and Frederick, Robin looked very different in person. The most unsettling thing about him was his hair color. I had never seen white hair on somebody so young.

Lissa too, appeared surreal in real life. As with the other characters, I had grown used to seeing her image in the game, so seeing an unanimated version of her was somewhat unsettling.

'She's also mad cute.'

I shrugged. It was true; she was very cute. But I knew better than to get friendly with the characters. 'No. Not characters, I've got to stop thinking like that.' I took a deep breath, 'Sam wasn't a character.' I knew better than to get friendly with the _people_ here. I didn't want to make a life here because, then, I wouldn't want to leave.

Night came, and we stopped. There was some dialogue. Lissa complained about bugs and walking and some other shit, so we split up to do some "hunting and gathering" as Fred had called it. Chrom and Robin had gone off to find some food, Lissa had gone to find a campsite with the horse, and I ended up with the knight, gathering firewood.

"So," I began awkwardly, reaching for a branch on the ground, "I get the feeling that you don't trust me." Beating around the bush wouldn't really help.

The knight picked up a large log, "Please, I mean no offense. We live in a dangerous world. I cannot simply let my guard down. Just as there are good people like milord, there are plenty who would take advantage of that goodness for their own gains. I must be vigilant of such people."

I chuckled, trying to be friendly, "None taken."

I frowned inwardly, 'I guess I would do the same.' I had been treated kindly by the people of this world, but the wizard on the wyvern was still a memory freshly burned into my mind. 'After that day, I suppose I've become quite reclusive.' I couldn't remember a time after that when I talked to somebody when I didn't need to. Even in a city full of people who might have been willing to help, never had I approached another human being.

"Forgive me for asking, but I must ask, where are you from?" It was the knight's turn to ask something. "You speak quite fluently, but you appear to be from another land."

This time I laughed out loud. If this had been home, I would have retorted with a sarcastic remark, but I guess this was Fred's first time seeing a foreigner that wasn't Plegian. "I hail from a land far away," I tried my best to speak in the most overdone manner possible, "Across the greatest sea you could imagine: the sea of emptiness." I was referencing space… or maybe another dimension? I still wasn't quite sure how I'd gotten there myself. But I answered as if it was space, which I assumed to be as close as I would get to explaining where I was from without blowing up his mind or confusing him.

Frederick, on the other hand, seemed to become deeply fascinated by what I'd said. 'I guess that happens when you tell people that you're basically an alien.' We'd both had full stacks of wood piled up on our arms by now, and we started to head back the way we came.

"Really. How interesting." His brow furrowed and he squinted at me, as if looking at me for the first time. "You come from across the eastern sea?"

I frowned, I guess he misheard me, but whatever. "Sure," It would be easier to explain than if he thought that I came from the sky anyway. "You believe me?"

"Maybe." that was a first. In the brief time that I'd known Frederick, those were one of the last words I expected to come from his mouth, second only to full blown agreement. "This whole afternoon, you had asked question after question about the land. I had begun to think it strange, but this may explain it. You know nothing of this land because you come from another. Is that correct?"

I grinned, it was so right and yet so wrong at the same time. "Exactly. You know what, Freddie? That's exactly it. Do you believe it?"

"Please do not call me that, and I still have my doubts… But milord sees no harm in you coming along."

We walked in silence for a bit, with only the sound of crunching leaves and small twigs under our feet.

"You trust me now?"

"Don't count on it."

We walked back into the clearing Lissa had found for us. She was sitting on a rock, pouting. "It took you guys long enough, sheesh."

'Wow, she complains a lot.'

"Wow. You complain a lot." My mouth slipped up.

The princess stuck out her tongue. "Only when I'm tired." She really was a kid.

I followed Fred and unloaded the wood in a pile next to his. My pile was about three quarters the size of his, but I had lost whatever fat I might have had before, as well as quite a bit of muscle, so I didn't think too badly of it.

"Dinner's here!" The three of us turned our heads to where Chrom and Robin were dragging in a dead bear. "Robin here's quite the shot with magic!"

Lissa groaned and Frederick began stoically working on the fire. 'Jesus, does that man ever smile?' I wondered silently. Chrom and Robin started up a conversation as they started to prepare the bear. I didn't really know what to do, so I sat on the side and watched them work. I guess I wasn't very useful.

The evening passed. Bear meat turned out to be better than I had expected. They had cooked it next to the fire and we ate it with some kind of stale bread with our hands, but I didn't really care too much. I was hungry. 'And food is food.' I nodded to myself as I took huge bites out of the meat.

They all talked, but I didn't really pay attention or engage in the conversation. It was all scripted, and knowing the script made it somewhat boring. Soon enough, we were all lying in the dirt next to the fire, trying to get some sleep.

They were, at least. I knew what was going to happen, so I just lay awake, staring up at the starry sky.

The night sky in Ylisse looked nothing like the one at home. Where I lived, in the suburbs, there was too much light pollution to get a good view of the stars, but every once in a while, my father would take me camping and we would watch the sky together. Here, it was just like that. Thousands of stars twinkled above me. They didn't care about the struggles on this land, they never would.

'After all, they're just blazing balls of gas, thousands of lightyears away.'

Gazing up at the stars, I was once again alone in my thoughts. If it was me from a week ago lying there, then I would probably have been giddy with excitement. I probably would have wanted to get to know everybody and go through the whole thing as if it was a game. Probably. I hoped that I wouldn't have been like that.

I didn't want it to be like that anymore. Something about my stay here must have changed that. Something about this place just didn't appeal to me. To be honest, though, I didn't know what I wanted. I could still try to join the shepherds. I could eat a lot and work out to gain weight again. I could start training and learn to kill.

I could hide in the shadows. I could do as Lucina did, or will do, and follow the shepherds around, only to sweep in at the end in an attempt to get home.

I could try to get money. I could raise my power and influence so that I could get an army of people to look for my way home so that I didn't have to beat the game. So that I could just step out before the worst would happen.

I didn't know what I wanted anymore.

I sighed and turned over, so that I was on my side. I looked at the dying embers of the fire in front of me. 'Mom… Dad, what would you do?' I reached into the pouch and pulled out my iPod. For the first time since I'd arrived, I took a good look at it.

The screen was broken, cracked along the center. The button at the bottom of the screen was missing, as were the volume buttons. Where they once were, I could see the broken, slightly blackened board, burned away by a short circuit.

"Grandpa… I wish you were here." I muttered softly, sticking the device back into the pouch. It would have been nice to have somebody to listen, somebody who would hear my troubles and understand. I could already imagine his placating smile. Shame I couldn't imagine what advice he would give.

'But I'm alone.' Nobody would believe me if I told them I was from another world. I stared at the coals. They glowed mesmerizingly. I almost didn't notice the Prince and Princess get up and disappear into the forest. I did hear them, however. I listened to their whispers as they shuffled away to find the risen.

Of course, they didn't know that. Only I did.

'I wonder if I should follow them.' Staying here with Robin and Fred seemed like a safe option.

I waited a few seconds. Those seconds became minutes.

'Wait, shouldn't they have woken up by now or something?' How else did they get there in time to save Chrom and Lissa? I waited a few more minutes. Nothing happened. Frederick was lying like a statue, and Robin snored softly.

'Guess I'll have to take matters into my own hands.' I got up.

"Come on. Get up, buttercup." I was kneeling over the knight, "Chrom and Lissa are missing."

Frederick shot up. "What? Where?" He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. "What have you done to them?"

I looked around me, and only then did I realize how suspicious the situation was. It was the middle of the night. I should have been asleep. It didn't make sense that I would just happen to be awake when the prince and princess of the realm disappeared from right next to me, unless I had some foreknowledge. Naturally, I did know, but that would probably make it only more suspicious. I mentally punched myself.

I tried my best to escape, but he was too strong. "Okay, okay. Geez, just let go."

He didn't release me.

"O-okay then." I mumbled. 'God this guy is scary.'

"I didn't do anything. I couldn't fall asleep and heard them get up and go." That much was true.

"And you didn't ask them where?" the knights eyes narrowed.

"Nah." I squirmed a little. "I thought they were just trying to find a good spot to use the… the" I struggled a little, 'Shit. What did they call it?'

"… The chamber pot." I lied. 'Crap. I thought that being with these people was supposed to make me safer or something.' I inhaled through my mouth and exhaled out of my nose. "Look." I sighed, trying to look and sound convincing, "I know how you can get to them, but you have to trust me."

'Hey, this can turn into a good thing, I can get his trust…'

"For some strange reason, I get the feeling that if we look up at the sky, we'll find out where they are." I tried to sound as not-suspicious as possible.

He raised an eyebrow. "Do you wish to live?"

Holy hell, how I wished I had woken Robin first, who happened to be snoring away next to me.

'This guy was so reasonable a couple of hours ago, do I really look like the kind of guy to go out and abduct people?'

"Hey, just watch the sky. I know that their location will be in the sky."

"Why should I not simply make your location… in the ground?" Fredrick was glaring knives at me. "Milady does not even know signaling magic yet. What's more likely is that you will lead us into a trap. I bet the signal will come from whatever cronies you have working with you."

Luckily for me, the ground shook at that moment. The trees rattled and shook violently. In the distance, we could hear a fissure form and spew out lava and fireballs, setting the woods ablaze. The horse neighed uneasily and Frederick looked like he was going to shit himself.

I thought that last part was kind of funny, despite myself.

It woke Robin up. He'd been snoring away the whole time, but when the first of the shaking started, his head shot up and he scrambled to his feet. The attempt had been in vain, however, since he lost his balance immediately and fell flat on his butt.

Of course, that's when I realized something important. 'Fuck. So that's what should have woken them up.' I had forgotten about the earthquake. 'If only I'd pretended to be asleep.'

"See?" I said triumphantly, "that was the first part. The next is going to be this big flash in the sky." I waved my hands in the air.

"Why should I trust you? How do I know you are not leading me away from them? This could be you lying in so many ways." Frederick's eyes narrowed even more.

I had nothing. "I told you before, Frederick, I understand your skepticism. But for this, you're just going to have to put your faith in me."

He sighed and finally let go of me. "If they are not before me within half the hour, consider yourself a dead man." He turned to Robin, "What do you know of this?"

I gulped. 'Shit. How was this the safe option? Of course Fred would be suspicious of me if I woke him up telling him the Prince and Princess were gone! What the hell was I thinking?' I let out the breath I'd been holding, 'But… but what if they hadn't woken up? Then the pair would be short a tactician and a knight, and they might die. Then it would be game over for me.'

I took another deep breath and turned my head to the sky. There was only one thing I could do, hope.

As it turned out, it didn't take a lot of hoping. A couple seconds later, an eerie silence passed over the forest, and I saw the eye-like portal from which the risen would come out.

"Let's go there!" I pointed in the direction of the portal and started running.

'Thank god for the shoes on my feet. Shoes that I… stole.'

Frederick, who had prepared his horse while we waited, pulled Robin on with him and began riding off in the direction I had just pointed. I guess he trusted Robin more.

It didn't take long to find them. A couple of minutes of running revealed the crew standing in a clearing. The blue portal still hung wide in the air.

'What.' My eyes widened and my jaw dropped.

In front of me was the scene from the game, on steroids. No fewer than twenty risen had fallen out of the portal. More continued to fall out with sickening thumps. The forest was also on fire. Flames from the eruption earlier engulfed the surrounding trees, shedding a sickly orange light upon the undead. Shadows stretched out, casting long, distorted silhouettes of the humanoid forms on the ground around them.

I caught up to the rest and took deep gasping breaths of air. 'How did I fall so out of shape?' We were standing in a large clearing, about the size of a football field. Robin sounded like he was giving instructions to the assembled group, which included Chrom, Lissa, Frederick and "Marth". Must have been important tactical procedures or something, but my gaze was fixed on the eye shape in the sky.

The blue portal widening, and more of zombie creatures began to fall out. 'Fuck. Try not to panic. No freaking out no freaking out no freaking out…' I watched in horror as the encroaching hoard grew.

"… George, George!"

'Huh?'

I looked over to my right. The four soldiers, or soldiers to be, looked at me expectantly.

"Can you fight?" Robin asked. I felt like a deer in the headlights… again.

'Make a decision. Make one fast…' things seemed to accelerate way too quickly for my comfort.

"I can try."

'Holy shit. I'm going to fight… But it's okay, because these things are already dead… right?' I couldn't think about that, 'If I don't fight, I will die.' I nodded, my resolve solidifying.

Robin nodded and handed me his sword. "Alright, We're a small group, so the greatest problem is getting surrounded. Chrom and um… him," he pointed to Lucina-in-disguise, "will support Frederick. George will stay back and make sure nobody gets too close to Lissa or me. Stay close, and avoid getting surrounded at all costs. Lissa and I will be in the back supporting. Listen to my instructions, I'll direct us to which of these things we'll engage, and where to retreat to." Robin whipped out a tome. "All right let's go."

The five of us made a formation of sorts. Frederick was in the front, with Chrom and Marth on either side of him. I stood a couple meters behind them in-between Robin and Lissa.

'I guess this makes the most sense.' Frederick had a lance, which had the longest reach. Moreover, he had a horse, which made a double advantage of height and reach. The two blue-haired sword wielders didn't have said advantages, so they would have to settle with less involved roles. That way, nobody would become overwhelmed in the fighting. Robin no longer had a weapon, but I guess he could use magic from a distance, which would also support the few people we had fighting.

I took all of the thirty seconds it took to get across the field, to get acquainted with the strange object in my hands. It was indeed a sword. The blade was long, somewhat dull on the edges, and sharp on the tip. As a whole, it was pretty light, so I would probably be able to hold in one hand without too much trouble. The cross guard was a plain pair of short, metal sticks protruding from the base of the blade. The grip itself was soft and worn, so it must have been well used.

'People have probably died at the end of this sword.' I didn't want to think about it.

We quickly closed the distance between the risen, and I got my first good look at them. Their faces were masked, which meant only the glowing crimson of their eyes shone. Although movies have always depicted zombies as hunched over and moaning, the risen stood erect and gurgled. In a way, their current posture made them even more haunting. Another thing that was different was their skin, rather than the green that was always present in the movies and games, they were a pale blueish purple, with some parts approaching a darker greenish, brownish black.

I blanched, their skin tone could only be the result of a lack of oxygen and the beginnings of rot.

The sky darkened as the portal finally closed and we were alone.

'Oh shit.' I watched one get stabbed in the chest. It shivered and dissolved into a purple dust. Robin let loose an arc of lightning from next to me. A risen came from the left, and was slain by the knight's lance. Another's head was popped off by the prince's sword. 'Stay close. Stay close. Stay close…' I eyed the small heap of purple dust on the ground with no small amount of fear.

The tactic that Robin employed was simple. He told us to charge, and we would go ahead and when he told us to retreat, we would run away. The trio could attack a manageable number of risen that way, which minimized risk. At most, maybe three at any one time.

'There are too many.' I hadn't even swung the sword yet and I was feeling tired. In front of us were still another thirty of the monsters. Only seven or eight piles of purple dust were left behind us.

"Let's push to the left!" Robin shouted, pointing to a small cluster of six or seven risen standing next to the edge of the clearing.

Everybody shouted in some kind of confirmation, and we charged.

It was the biggest group of enemies that we had, faced, but everybody seemed to be taking it in stride. Another blast of lightning from my right. A flash of red from the left.

'Wait, a flash of red?'

I turned nine o'clock to see the monster heading for us from the woods. 'It must have gotten separated from the rest.' I thought as I watched it approach. It took a second to realize that the human death shield that was Chrom, Frederick and Lucina was on my right… and 'Shit. I'm going to have to fight it.'

I braced myself. 'Oh fuck. What do I do? I don't know how to fight. Shitshitshitshitshit…' I looked into the thing's crimson eyes. It didn't care. 'Oh fuck it. I'll just follow instinct.' Not like I had any better options.

What did instinct say? It said two words: don't die.

The zombie wielded an axe, which it swung up to prepare for a downward stroke upon my head. When it had closed the distance, I jumped to the side, dodging the swing. It gurgled some more as it quickly recovered and took a swing at my leg. I jumped back this time.

'Gotta do some offense… Don't die.'

I stabbed forward, which was avoided with a graceful sidestep. For things that were dead, the risen certainly were lively. I tried to turn the jab into a swing, but lost my balance and fell forward. I almost cut my leg off as my arms flailed in an attempt to regain my footing.

I crumpled onto the ground. Don't die.

'Shit.' I flipped over onto my back in time to see the axe shining above the beasts' head. I rolled to the left and kicked out as hard as I could. My foot connected with what must have been a rotting leg, because a sickening squishy noise followed. The risen lost its balance and thumped onto the ground next to me, gurgling away.

In normal circumstances, I probably would have lost my stomach at that. But the situation was all but normal. I was tired, confused, and most importantly of all, I was afraid. Above all else, it was my fear that kept me alive that night. It wasn't my fear of the zombie, or being lost, but the complete horror of death that fueled me. For at least those moments, I had relinquished my grasp on reason.

After the undead man had fallen, I scrambled up to my feet. In its last moments, the zombie warrior flailed around, whipping the axe about in a panic. Being too close, one swing caught me in the side, crushing a rib and tearing through the surrounding flesh. I gasped and fell to my knees. Without realizing it, I placed the tip of the blade in the zombie's face, in an attempt to use the long shaft for support.

The risen vanished, and I was alone.

Adrenaline flooded my veins, and endorphins were released in my brain, better than from any race I had run or swam before. For only a brief moment, I felt fucking invincible. It was the most incredible thing I had experienced in my life up to that point.

Even with a gash under my right armpit, even though I could see the bone, shining red in the light of the fire, I felt good.

I had survived by accident. This was the closest thing I had done that had come to ending the life of a human… and I felt _good_.

And wrong.

That moment was soon over, though, and panic set in. I groaned as my brief ecstasy vanished, and I was left with pain. Pain and fear. I looked around me. The others were gone. I thought I could see them in the distance, along with the red hair that must have been Sully, and the grey-blue that was probably Virion.

I must have missed one of Robin's instructions in the heat of the fight.

'Ow.' This hurt.

'Am I going to die?' I tried to get on my feet again, which was a mistake. I groaned in pain as a fragment of my shattered rib drove itself into my lung. I fell to the ground, which hurt even more.

'Why did they leave me?' I was coughing blood now, and was feeling light-headed from blood loss.

'I'm not ready to die. I'm only eighteen…'

I gasped for air as my vision blurred until I saw nothing.

'Hm…' Something felt really good. It was the most amazing feeling around the right side of my ribcage. It was warm and felt like it was filling me with energy. I let out a relaxed sigh. It was the greatest sensation I had ever experienced.

I was lying in a somewhat uncomfortable position, something large was jammed against my back, which was twisted over so that I was lying on my side. 'Probably a pillow,' I tried to shift so that it would move from under my back to under my head, only to find that the pillow would not move. In fact, the pillow resisted my attempts to move it and let out a small, girly yelp of… 'surprise?'

That was how one of the best feelings I had, quickly turned into one of the worst feelings I've had.

I was not at home, in bed. Behind my back, was not a pillow, but a pair of knees. In fact, I wasn't even alone. Above me, were the stern faces of Chrom and Frederick and Marth, despite her mask, the somewhat amused faces of Robin, Sully and Virion, and the flustered face of Lissa.

A few gears clicked into place, and I followed all of their gazes to where my left hand was, on the poor princess's butt. I shouted and pulled away.

"Oh fuck,"

'Wrong words,' Chrom and Frederick looked more than a little angry.

"Um… er, Oh, shit. I did not mean to do that… It's just that… well… I thought…" I paused. 'Wait a second, what was I thinking?'

"Um… would anybody care to explain what's going on?" I realized that I was confused. 'How did I get here?'

"I believe I'm the one that should be asking you that question." The prince growled. "What were you trying to do with my sister?"

Robin stepped in, chuckling a little. "Relax, Chrom." He turned to me, "George, sometime during the battle, you disappeared. After we took care of those… things, we found you. You were hit pretty hard, and lost quite a bit of blood. Lissa was just taking care of it."

"Oh," I didn't know how to react.

'That's right… I'm here. I was attacked, and I survived…' I shuddered as the memories of moments ago came flooding back, 'and then what?' I couldn't remember. 'Must have passed out. Wait, then how am I alive?' From the looks of things, he was right. Since I was alive, it mustn't have been an hour since I'd gone down.

Lissa was holding a staff, 'Healers… That's right, I'm in a video game… I must be okay because of magic. How convenient.' Judging from the fact I was still alive, they must have found me less than an hour ago.

I noticed that everybody was still staring at me. Chrom was waiting for an explanation. "S-sorry. I was trying to reposition." I pointed to my body, which was currently twisted over so that the wound on my side was exposed. "This isn't exactly the most comfortable way to get treated."

"It's okay… Please try to stay still, I still need to fix the bone together before I can close the wound. Chrom," She faced her brother, "I need to work on him now, worry about it later." The prince nodded, and motioned the group away as Lissa removed a cloth from my side.

I looked down. It was true, I could see the broken rib in her hands. The wound was a bloody mess. 'How disgusting.' I looked away and tried not to gag.

"Why doesn't this hurt?" asked absently.

"Don't talk. It makes it more difficult to operate." She picked up her staff and it began to glow. "Normally, this would hurt a lot for you." I could feel the pleasant feeling return to my wound as what must have been magic began to pour in. "But I recently learned a numbing spell, so you don't feel anything."

'Hm…' Something was different about her when she was working. She got serious. I mustn't have noticed it before, but her annoying, nagging behavior from before had totally disappeared.

"Wow, magic is useful." I ignored her warning from just seconds ago.

She nodded, "It sure is!" The feeling disappeared. "There, all done. Try to take it easy. I'm going to take the spell off now, it'll hurt."

As soon as she said those words, I realized what she had meant when she said that I should have been in pain. The magic left, and I gasped, "Ow." I looked back at the wound and gasped again. This time, in disbelief.

The injury and any signs of it were gone. I took a deep breath, sitting up. My lung was perfectly fine. "Whoa… you saved my life." I paused, "And sorry for what just happened…"

"Don't worry about it." She smirked, not without malice, "I'll get you back."

'aaaand, she's a kid again.'

"Huh?" I got up unsteadily and brushed myself off. The way her eyes sparkled evilly worried me, "What do you mean?"

Whatever it was, I had already missed my chance to ask. Because she turned around, "Chrom, I'm done!"

I whipped my head around, "Look, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean-"

Chrom and Frederick walked up, expressions grim. I half expected for him to punch me or something, but he didn't. "Stop." He interrupted, "Don't worry about it. I shouldn't have yelled at you." He sighed, "Believe it or not, I know what it feels like to pass out halfway through a fight. It gets pretty disorienting when you wake up, and you handled it okay."

For the first time, I thought I saw a ghost of a smile on Frederick's face. "I believe that is an understatement milord. From what I remember, the first time you had gone down in battle, you nearly strangled-"

"Now, now, that's enough." Chrom sighed, shaking his head.

'That's a relief.' The last thing I wanted was for them to think I was a pervert or something.

"Guys, can we get back on topic here?" Robin called, "We were just talking to this guy over here." They must have started a conversation with Marth while I was being treated.

"Ah, right." Chrom turned around, and we all gathered around Lucina. "You saved my sister's life. My name is Chrom, might I ask yours?"

"… you may call me Marth."

I tried not to laugh. The whole situation was pretty serious. I'd almost died several minutes ago. I was still dizzy without blood, but it was hard to take Lucina's deception seriously when I already knew the whole story, how everything would play out.

"Marth? After the heroic king of old?" Chrom grinned, "You certainly fight like a hero. Where did you learn your way with the sword?"

"His style certainly seems familiar," Frederick muttered from beside me.

"I'm not here to talk about me." If Lucina felt anything about seeing Chrom, she did a good job about hiding it. "This world teeters at the brink of a horrible calamity. What you saw tonight was but a prelude. You have been warned."

'So this is time travel?' I had forgotten about that detail. 'Wow. That breaks logic in like, a million ways. But then again, so does my existence here.'

"Huh? What's teetering where now? Hey, wait!" Lissa called out.

'What if I'm not the first one to have come here? Was I in the original timeline as well?' That was out of the blue.

"Wait!" I called out, mimicking Lissa, "Marth, I need to ask you something!"

She shrugged and walked away anyway.

It didn't matter, anyway. Because at that moment, my exhaustion had finally caught up to me, and my eyes rolled back. Everything went black once again.

"So… you don't fight very much? Those things from last night were pretty easy to handle."

I sighed, "No. I do not fight. I've never experienced battle, and have never trained for it." Frederick was really getting on my case about this.

"Hm… I suppose it is better this way, it means you're less of a threat to milord… although you could be lying… But then why would you risk your life and get so wounded…" The man stared long and hard at me, "You, sir, are a mystery."

I shrugged, "Why don't you go bother Robin or something?" I just wanted to think. I've had no time to sort myself out after the previous night. After the battle, we had to leave the forest because of the fire, during which time I decided not to worry about the possibility of having been sent in the original timeline. By the time we had left the forest, however, it was dawn.

And so we just kept walking.

I was beginning to doubt if joining the shepherds was luck. I had only started to realize how shrewd a man like Frederick was. Nothing missed him. I'd thought he would have forgotten about my prediction of the portal, but as soon I had regained consciousness, he started asking me questions. The only things I had to offer were vague and unconvincing answers like: "Dunno" and "I got lucky", all of which only increased his suspicion of me.

Although, I did no small amount of bragging. I made sure that he also remembered that I was right about Chrom and Lissa's location.

Which was how I got to where I was, under a cloudless blue sky, exhausted and short of blood, trying to entertain a knight twice my weight and a quarter-foot taller than me. The only plus was that I didn't have to walk. Since I had passed out, they just sort of placed me on Frederick's horse and kept going.

Needless to say, regaining consciousness was quite the terrifying experience.

"Robin couldn't possibly be somebody dangerous to milord." Frederick sighed, as if explaining it to a child, "nobody would use such a characteristic and convenient cliché. If he wanted to convince anybody he wasn't out to do harm, he would definitely be more creative."

I chuckled, "That is so right, it's wrong." Even if I was tired, I could tell how convoluted that logic was. He was correct, anyway, though. If the game was right, Robin would never hurt Chrom willingly. "So what, my story is more convincing, and that's why it's more suspicious?"

Fred shook his head, "When you put it that way, you make me sound like a fool. But only a truly dangerous man would come up with such a conniving argument."

I ground my teeth. This guy was stubborn. "Fine, think what you want." I was beginning to get the feeling that Frederick was the kind of guy who was funny to hang out with, until someone realized he was serious.

We walked some more for a while. Chrom, Lissa and Robin were to my left, chatting about something, while Fred and I stood side by side, silent. I took the opportunity to retreat back into my thoughts.

'Staying with the Shepherds will be the safest option. I've decided that. Being alone will get me killed, and I'm pretty sure they'll be willing to train me to fight.' I didn't want to fight. I didn't want to kill, but the previous night had sharpened my resolve in this matter. 'It's kill or be killed. Sam and the bandits died because they couldn't kill. And last night, it would have been the same for me.'

It was torture for me to think like this. I looked out at the grassy plains around me. From atop the horse, I could see hills in the distance ahead of us. There was no technology anywhere. Only the wilderness. In this place, there would be no consequences. So long as I fought for the people who won, whom I already knew, I could get away with ending lives. 'I don't want to kill.' I thought sadly, but I was already resigned to the possibility.

Moreover, I finally developed a plan. It was a weak plan, but a plan nonetheless. 'I'll go to Ylisstol, and join the Shepherds. Miriel should be able to help me figure a way out. If she can't.' I sighed, 'If she can't then I'll just train and deal with the fact that I'm stuck until the end.'

It was depressing. 'I guess it's just the way things are here.' I looked over at Chrom, Lissa and Robin, who were talking jovially. Laughter broke out as Robin finished a joke. Even Frederick wasn't looking glum. Everybody seemed to be emotionally stable, even with the weight of several lives upon their shoulders. 'They're either psychotic, or hiding the pain.' I sagged in the saddle I was sitting in.

"You came along because you were lost, right? Somewhere across the sea?" I put my thoughts away and turned my attention toward Frederick, who had just spoken. The knight's brow furrowed.

"Yes." I answered slowly.

"So if we prepare a boat for you, will you be set?"

"Um." I groaned mentally. 'Shit. I didn't think of that. Guess I'll just have to B.S it!' I tried to wiggle my way out of it, "It's not that simple. See, I need a magical boat. It takes many years to make." I lied as best as I could. "Mine was ruined in a rough landing, and I ended up here with no way to get back."

I hoped there would be no holes in my story.

"I see… how convenient." He didn't look convinced.

I shrugged, "What can I say? You call it a convenient story; I call it lucky to be alive."

Whether or not the knight had anything to say to that, I would never know. Small spires peeked over small hills in the distance, and the young prince and princess seemed to inflate with pride and joy.

"That's the capital!" Chrom pointed proudly, "That's where we live."

We hurried over to the peak of the nearest hill. Below us was a city. Not the oversized town thing that was going on in Southtown, in front of us was a real city. I wasn't exactly a history expert, but I could only assume that it was a large city by the standards of Earth during the Medieval era.

Robin gaped. "So this is Ylisstol, capital of Ylisse. I've never seen so many people."

"It appears the capital was spared the chaos we encountered. Thank the Gods…" Fred exhaled in relief. "I see no evidence of the great quake. It must have been limited to the forest."

"Well that's a relief!" Lissa giggled.

We stepped down the hill and entered the city. It was actually so large, that there were no city gates. Instead, there were several walls, the innermost surrounding the palace. Around that, were the walls that encased what appeared to be the part of the city designated to nobility. That region had large buildings and was less crowded. Even further out that were several layers of outer walls, which must have been built as the city grew and grew. Within these walls, large throngs of people hustled and bustled about, likely delivering goods or going about some other business. The roads were packed and it was clear that this was designated for the low-class residents. As such, this region was many times larger than the other two.

Outside of the walls, however, still more buildings remained. Most were pretty small and poor looking, but they were buildings nonetheless.

Still, compared to the major cities from home, this didn't compare.

We entered the first walls, and Robin began to get excited. I could literally see him look around, wide eyed, as if trying to take in as much as possible. His head swayed from one side to the next, scanning everything. I felt myself get a little excited as well. The place was full of all kinds of people, and unlike the NPCs from the game, they all probably lived their own lives and had their own stories to tell.

One man was arguing with another over the price of some bread, while a woman sold fruits a little further down. A little boy was following another man, who must have been his father. Another little girl was watching a woman do magic tricks on the side, except these magic tricks involved _real_ magic.

One man, a particularly elderly one, yelled out in awe. "Look, the Exalt has come to see us!"

Indeed, a small crowd was gathered before him, from which I could only see a blurred mass along with several lines protruding vertically. 'Must be spears, it would be ridiculous to travel without guards.'

"The Exalt is your ruler, yes?" Robin asked.

Frederick replied immediately. "Yes. Her name is Lady Emmeryn." His chest swelled with pride at those words.

"Is it safe for her to be walking among commoners like this?" The tactician-to-be frowned a little, somewhat concerned.

"The Exalt is a symbol of peace—Ylisse's most prized quality." Fred nodded, in complete agreement with Robin. "Long ago, at the dawn of our age, the fell dragon tried to destroy the world. But the first Exalt joined forces with the divine dragon and laid the beast low. Exalt Emmeryn reminds us of the peace we fought for then."

"With Plegia poking at our borders, the people need her. She's a calming presence, when some might otherwise call for war." Chrom clarified. "If she didn't do things like this, people might panic."

"Then the Ylissean people are indeed lucky to have her." Robin nodded in awe, "It must take no small amount of bravery to go out in public."

"She's also the best big sister anyone could ask for!" Lissa exclaimed.

"Yes, I imagine she…" Robin paused, "Wait, what? She's your… but wouldn't that make you and Chrom…" He frowned again, this time in confusion.

I, on the other hand, zoned out. I already knew what was going to happen, so I followed along lazily, I don't know how they managed to stay so awake after pulling an all-nighter like that.

We walked through the city, towards the large stone walls of the palace. The streets weren't crowded, but were populated enough that it would be a problem if I got separated, which made it all the better that I was still atop the horse. I took the opportunity to get a chance to look at the more affluent part of the city, which was the part we seemed to be approaching.

I stared up at the buildings, which were now at least three or four stories high. They looked cleaner and more deliberately made, with style. It was an interesting contrast to some other buildings, which looked like they were made quite a bit smaller and seemed to be held together quite poorly. People probably paid less attention to building code here. Some of the buildings featured yards, and some even had lush gardens peeking from behind them. The streets got bigger and parts of the road were cleaner, but there were still piles of dirt under the windows in the alleyways.

"Hey, Frederick, why is there dirt next to almost every single building?" It had been absently nagging me for a while now.

"Those?" he asked, pointing to a small pile of dirt next to a particularly large brick home, to which I nodded, "That's dung, not dirt."

I tried not to gag. "What? That's shit? Why the hell are the streets lined with it?" I had thought that at least the richer neighborhoods would be nicer than that.

"Where do you expect it goes? When a chamber pot is filled, it has to be dumped somewhere." The knight gave me a patronizing look which kind of sucked, since I was on his mount.

"Um… Yeah, right. Forgot about that." I had taken for granted the plumbing of Earth. 'One more reason to go home.' I groaned, how was I going to live like this?

We continued through the rest of the city to the walls of the palace, where the guards had immediately recognized Chrom and let us in. I looked in awe at the stone walls around me. The castles within the palace gates were enormous. The walls around them had been big on their own, but couldn't compare to the castles within. Spires of stone and huge castles loomed around us. I couldn't help but feel small.

The prince and princess led us through the castles, ending our journey at what must have been the entrance of the throne room.

After some debating with a guard, we were let in. I gasped, and from next to me, I could hear Robin do the same. The room shone gold with the light of late afternoon, which came from large arches on either sides of the room. A long red carpet covered the entire stretch of the hall, at the end of which I could see the faint blob that must have been Emmeryn.

We approached, and I could begin to see her face. 'God she's gorgeous.' The game wasn't messing around with character appearances; she was definitely a real-life version of the Emmeryn in the game.

"Chrom! Lissa! Welcome home." She sighed, as if relieved to see them safe, "Oh, and good day, Frederick." She added, nodding to the knight. "How fared you all?"

"Well, we shouldn't have any bandit problems for a while." Chrom grinned.

'Did he really just joke about the people he killed?' I would have expected better from a good guy.

"Wonderful, and our people?"

"Safe as they can be, Emm. But we still need to watch our borders. Brigands crossed over from Plegia." His brow furrowed with worry.

'Were they really that bad?' I couldn't imagine how common criminals were the top priority of the government here. 'Something seems terribly off.' Even in the Medieval era, I was almost certain that there were laws and procedures for criminals. Punishment by death seemed more than a little too harsh.

'Strange.' I eyed everybody a little more warily. I had never thought about the fact that I was killing people when I played the game. Now, I had vowed to kill when necessary, to go home. 'Can I really stick to it?' I shook my head. 'My first concern is finding out what kind of people these guys are.'

In a way I already knew the answer.

I looked back at the group. They still talked animatedly about their problems. Problems that I already knew the answer to. 'This has got to be some kind of sick joke.' Somehow, the excitement of the game went away when I knew what was going to happen.

"And this is George."

'Huh?' I snapped out of my reverie.

"It sounds like Ylisse owes you a debt of gratitude, Robin." Emmeryn nodded to me, "And it is a pleasure to meet you, George."

"Not at all milady!" Robin answered immediately.

"Yeah, hi." Frederick nudged me in the back, "Er… I mean… Nice to meet you too, milady?" I struggled. 'I have no idea how to address these people.'

"Forgive me, Your Grace, but I must speak. Robin claims to have lost his memory, but it is only that: a claim. We cannot rule out the possibility that he is a brigand himself, or even a Plegian spy." He shifted his gaze to me, "Moreover, George claims to be lost, and has no concept of what this land is like, yet he managed to predict an event that could have killed some of us, which is very suspicious. This man is an anomaly, and while he may seem incapable of fighting, he too may be a spy. The truth is, both of these people have the potential to be very dangerous people."

"Frederick!" Chrom was too nice for his own good.

'…but is he really?' It was almost like he had a switch, and when that switch was flipped, he'd kill.

"Yet you allowed these men into the castle, Chrom.' Good or bad, Emmeryn was still unbelievably hot. 'Do these men have your trust?"

"Yes, both have risked their lives for our people. That's good enough for me." Chrom nodded, as if his verbal affirmation wasn't enough.

"Well then, it seems both of you have earned Chrom's faith, and as such you have mine as well." Perhaps she was a little too trusting for a politician, not that it was my problem.

'What a nice person, shame she'll die...' Where had that come from? 'Damn, this sucks. Emmeryn will die, and there's nothing I can do about it.' I felt more helpless and useless than ever. 'It'll have to happen. It's the way the game goes.' How sad.

"Ah…"

Finally. I'd managed to convince Chrom to add me to the shepherds, something that had turned out to be pretty simple. I only needed to ask, hinting that it might help me find a way home. Simultaneously, he set me up with Frederick to work on learning to fight. I suppose my display the previous night was pretty embarrassing.

Everything from here was smooth sailing. Fighting bad guys, exploring the world and not dying would be a simple matter among the shepherds. 'All I have to do is stick around until I beat the game.' Making sure I didn't give the Shepherds reason to kill me was pretty much the only task I had. It might take a several years, if I was unlucky, but home, with internet, air conditioning, cars and not dying, sounded infinitely better than this place.

I scrambled into the cot in the barracks Chrom had showed me earlier that day. It wasn't a bed, but it was soft and had a blanket. I exhaled as I felt myself relax into the small, straw mattress. I closed my eyes as a pleasant, cool, slimy…

'Wait, fuck?'

A large frog leapt out of the covers and onto my face. I screamed and fled the cot, waking up everybody else in the room.

Somewhere, Lissa was probably laughing.

 **AN:**

 **Nobody died at the end of this chapter! I realized that I was kind of going down dangerous territory with characters dying at the end of chapters, and I didn't want George to be alone!**

 **But in all seriousness, I thought that this story was due for some humor, so I tried to add a few funnier/happier moments.**

 **One thing I will note is that the characters will be a little more OCish. It's not that I dislike the characters, but I don't want to write a story where people are either good guys or bad guys. Yeah, actually scratch that first statement. I really dislike it when a character is definitively good or evil. I'll probably say it again and again.**

 **Frankly, I find it difficult to appreciate a character when everything they do is justifiable. One thing that makes life interesting is the two-sided nature of our choices. Some will be good, and some will be bad. When a choice is all good (or all bad), it's just too obvious. It has no value because anybody could make it. When people (or characters) make difficult decisions, you can appreciate their choice because it reflects what kind of person they are. Anyway, I'm starting to rant, so I'll leave it at this: that's why I'm going to change around some of the characters on the good and bad side alike.**

 **On another note, I'm pretty sure the poop thing on the streets is actually true. I think I learned it in History class or something, but that was basically plumbing for them. Just poop in a pot, and toss it out the window. Out of sight, out of mind… I guess. It's not so hard to imagine how there were so many plagues back then, is it?**

 **The sword thing is also true, according to a website I used. The reason that only the tip of the sword was sharp was because the edge of the blade was extremely prone to chipping, and so making it a little thicker sacrificed some cutting strength for durability. That didn't mean that the edge wasn't sharp, it was still enough to slice through someone. It just took more force.**

 **Of course, magic exists in Ylisse, so things don't need to be totally realistic. I just thought it would be cool if I put some interesting details from reality in. Besides, chamber pots build character.**

 **Anyway, thanks so much for reading this far, especially through this killer author's note! As always, please review as well! If you have any questions about the story or have anything to say about it, just hit me up with a review or a PM. I'll reply to either. Can't say I'll answer all your questions, though, I want there to be some surprise as to what will happen next. (Plus, it's my shameless way of getting people to want to read the next chapter.) Maybe it works?**

 **See you next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4: The Learning Curve Is Sharp

**Oh My God.**

 **This chapter took WAY too long to write. It's not even a particularly long or good chapter. I just couldn't write it. Super-duper sorry to anyone that was waiting for this chapter. However few or many you are in number (and you know who you are), know that I am forever thankful for all the support.**

 **Anyway, I'll save the rest for the end of the chapter. Enjoy!**

 **Update(9-2-2016):**

 **Hey guys, so at the end of the chapter I promised you guys a new one yesterday. Well, I'm not even a third of the way through that chapter. It's freaking huge, and I'm barely getting through. I'm so sorry, and it was wrong of me to try to promise something that I probably couldn't do, but school's just been hammering me. Not really an excuse, since a promise is a promise. Please hate me... actually don't because I think I hate myself enough for this.**

 **I'll get it out as soon as possible. Sorry again.**

 **Update(5-5-2018):**

 **Two years and you guys thought I was dead? Think again! So, a few things (cause I'm terrible for not keeping up with my last promise but at least I came back?):** **To those of you who haven't given up yet... Don't! I'm back and better so expect a new chapter before long.** **No new chapters yet. I'm working on the next one. I'm currently rereading/writing the previous chapters-just a few grammatical errors here and there-and handling my final exams. Sorry this isn't an actual chapter, my goal is to have that out before the month is out!**

 **See y'all soon!**

Chapter 4: The Learning Curve is Sharp

' _Bright.'_

 _Complete emptiness surrounded me. And through it all, white, hot light burned at my eyes. It was as though my weight had disappeared, lifted off my shoulders and vanished into an ocean of light. I floated, soared, in a pool of nothing, a small bubble. Around that bubble, objects and images swirled around in an endless expanse of effervescence._

 _From inside, I watched as countless things, experiences, floated past my vision. I watched a cow stare at me from its orb of grass, chewing at the soft green material, before it faded away. I watched as a television swam into view in front of me, a football, a family. I watched all these things appear and disappear._

 _I noticed that below me, a vast sea stretched out into the distance. From the warm, illuminated comfort of my little bubble, the sea looked cold and dark. I shuddered a little, staring at the freezing, black waves._

 _As I returned my gaze back to the floating objects above me, something approached far closer than any of the others. It was my family. Crammed together in a small bubble, my brother, sister, mother, father, and grandparents smiled at me, frozen as an image. Their bubble got closer and closer, and eventually, fell into the one I was in._

 _The little orb fell into my lap, and I stared, amazed, at the photo of my family, trapped in the little ball._

 _As if attracted to that first bubble, more and more orbs began to appear. They surrounded my own little space, flooding in._

 _I smiled, watching images of my friends, relatives, teachers and coaches fall gently through the invisible barrier of my floating light-orb. I grinned as physical objects began to come in too. My first camera, the old iPod my grandfather had given me, my first track spikes all joined me in the bubble._

 _Little did I know, that with every object that came, the bubble grew a little heavier. With every friend that joined me, every childhood toy or memory that came in, I fell closer to the dark waters below. A little weight seemed to fall upon me._

 _It wasn't until the first of the waves began to lap at my feet did I notice how far I'd come, that I'd been dragged down in the first place._

" _You have to choose." The words came to me, loud and clear, as though somebody had said it from next to me. I turned around, however, nobody was there._

 _Frantically, my eyes darted downwards. The dark fluid sucked the warmth out of me. The water was up to my ankles, now._

 _Things still flooded into the bubble. The same as before, they were memories, people, images and objects of sentiment, all things important to me. Now, even choices came. It was like looking at a scene from Mass Effect, all my options pasted onto on image of me talking with someone. They all wandered in, oblivious to the fact that I was being brought to a watery demise._

' _What do I do? Which do I leave?' I reached for a notebook, dumping it out. I grabbed the stacks of books I've read, tossing them out as well. I wouldn't need them to stay afloat._

 _But it was all in vain, I was inundated with more and more things. I couldn't keep up, and now the pressure on my shoulders was becoming unbearable. The water was up to my waist now. The light was dimming, no longer searing my retinas. My vision was beginning to fade._

" _You have to choose." The voice rang in my ears again._

 _My body was completely submerged now. I clawed at the water around me in a vain attempt to climb up, but I seemed to grow heavier than ever before, and was forced down deeper. I was shoving everything out now, only to be buried under more._

" _You have to choose."_

 _I tried to yell, but nothing came out. I was suffocating now._

" _You can't have everything…"_

* * *

I gasped.

'Dream…' I frowned, 'It was a dream.' I was cold. My head hurt.

I sat up and turned my head around, soaking in my location. I was in the room I'd fallen asleep in the previous night. Several empty cots lie around the room, but aside from that, I was alone. The growing light of dawn shone through a small, glass paned window. Cold, grey stone walls, floor and ceiling surrounded me. 'That's right… The barracks.' I felt dazed as the memories of the last few days came rushing into my mind.

I sat for a moment in thoughtful reverie, before shaking my head and getting up from the creaking cot and onto the freezing floor. 'First order of things: get new clothes.' The ones I stole were all bloody and nasty again. 'Then… I have a mage to find.' I thought that Frederick had also said something about training in the afternoon.

According to Chrom, the only Shepherds in the palace were him, Robin, Lissa, Frederick, Stahl, Miriel, and now me. Apparently, Vaike, Maribelle and Sumia had gone to some other place to train. Sully was apparently on some sort of scouting trip with Virion—another new member—and ended up having to go even further after the attack of the risen. So, they had yet to join us in the castle.

'I guess he just forgot about Kellam.' I slipped on a cleanish looking white shirt I found in a dresser and changed the rest of my clothes as well. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

"Yes!" I exclaimed, "I can see!" I gently adjusted the new glasses on my face.

Finding the mage had been pretty simple. It was only a matter of searching for the quietest room in the palace, where she would no doubt be doing her reading. As it turned out, the she was actually an official for the government, a record keeper or something. And so she, apparently, had her own room and office in the palace. Even though she seemed to have a solid job position, she was still pretty young, only about twenty or so.

'I guess Medieval people started work early?' It also wouldn't have been a stretch that she might have been some kind of prodigy or something, considering her in-game character.

While her complexion and fluid motion meant that she was still young, her thin brow seemed to be constantly weighed down. So she always appeared to be in deep thought. In spite of that, her appearance was still very much like that in the game. Her straight, red-brown hair framed her thin face, which bore a narrow nose, a thin mouth, and sharp, observant eyes. The woman wore straight, black robes, high leather boots and a large, pointy hat. Unlike Lissa, Miriel didn't have the cute sort of attractiveness. Instead, the woman had a kind of classy beauty, always gracefully poised.

I had to remind myself that she was also a deadly killer.

After some brief introductions, I discovered that the mage was quite relaxed, in spite of her strict demeanor, and was more than willing to make me my very own magical pair of corrective lenses, which were more or less two pieces of glass with a sight clearing spell on them.

Miriel sat back down behind her desk as the room around me resolved into crisp detail. It was a small office, with several bookshelves lining the walls. Tomes lined the shelves neatly, and some were stacked nicely next to and on the table in the center of the room. On the desk, were several nicely piled sheets of paper and a quill in an inkpot.

Miriel and I were seated on opposite sides of the desk, my side being the one closest to the only door in the room. She picked up one of the books on the desk, the one she had been reading when I entered before, and proceeded to ignore me.

"Thank you, so much." I tried.

"Of course. It _is_ only a simple spell." She shrugged. Her eyes never left the book.

I grinned, "Still, sight is a wonderful thing. I can only imagine how useful it would be to know magic."

"It certainly is advantageous to know magic. It is, however, an uncommon gift, one that I am quite thankful for." She nodded, still reading. I could tell why she seemed a little more withdrawn than the other Shepherds. When her nose wasn't buried in a book, she rattled off all she had read from them. She was either talking a lot, or not at all. For now, it seemed to be not at all.

'Man, I thought my ears would fall off when she was making the glasses.' I readjusted the wiry frame on my face. As she carefully crafted the pair, she had been sure to tell me of every single mechanic at work. At least, every single mechanic that she knew of.

It wasn't the uncontrollable kind of talking that was hard to follow, one thing that had become absolutely clear to me was that she was deliberate, and chose her words carefully. Her logic was actually pretty easy to follow and she didn't use extremely long, difficult to understand words, something I had noted to her.

When I had said that, she looked at me as though I had just suggested that pizza grew on trees and said, "Why would I ever do something to render my communication ineffective?"

I had only shrugged at that.

"Is it possible to give that gift to somebody?" I asked hopefully, returning my thoughts to magic.

"I've never heard of it." She was seriously riveted to that book.

"So there's no other way? I can't learn magic?" It wasn't that big a deal, so long as I could get home soon. 'I guess it'd just be kinda cool and useful.' I tried to shrug it off.

"I'm afraid not." Miriel shook her head sadly. Adjusting her glasses, but never taking her eyes off the book.

"Okay then, another question." I exhaled. 'There went that idea.' I braced myself for a reaction, "What do you think of other worlds?"

Miriel stopped reading, and placed the book down calmly, readjusting her glasses again. I knew she was going to say something, then. "What do you mean? Are you talking about foreign lands, like Valm?"

I shook my head, this was exactly what I was afraid of. I remembered learning that conquistadors first referred to the Americas as the "New World" and had anticipated that the people here might imagine foreign lands similarly. "No. I'm talking about a separate reality. Like, an existence that is entirely apart from this one."

Miriel frowned. I didn't expect her to get it right away. The concept was still pretty new to me and I was living proof of it. 'Either that, or I've gone absolutely fucking insane.' But assuming that I wasn't crazy, even the leading scientists of a world as advanced as Earth could only speculate on such matters.

"I think I know what you speak of, I read of it in a book once." She rubbed her temples, as if doing so would help her remember, "But alternate existences are extremely improbable, and there's no way to prove them, because it is in their nature to be completely isolated from other instances of reality. Even if something came from far away, how would we know if it was from another reality, or from a distant region of our own? This posits some interesting questions…" she started to drone, as she seemed to when a book wasn't in her hands. I had somehow managed to understand most of what she had said to that point, and was giving myself an imaginary pat on the back when she drew me back to, funnily enough, reality. "But what is it you wish to ask me?"

"Well," I began, "let's say something traveled from a far enough region that it could be considered… out of this world. Is there a way to send it back? Do you know any magic that could do that?" This was my only hope of getting home before hell broke loose, which _was_ going to happen. I needed to know.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid there is no magic that can do that, at least not any recorded magic." She sighed, "And there is no way to test for something like that." She paused, eyes narrowing a little, "Why? Is there a subject of research that you've somehow acquired?"

It was my turn to shake my head, "No." I lied. "Just wondering." I tried not to let my disappointment show.

After the frog shenanigans the previous night, I had lie in bed, speculating the possibility of an Outrealm gate or something. It was probably just a way for the creators to put a cool way to incorporate downloadable content, but I had seen some fics that played off the idea. 'Still,' I reminded myself, 'the possibility's not completely out. It just means that nobody knows about the Outrealm yet… If it exists'

We sat awkwardly after that. Instead of dismissing me, she picked up her book again and started reading. Eventually, I got up to leave, but just as I had laid my hand upon the doorknob, Miriel said, "Wait. Actually, there may be a way."

My heart leapt, "Really? What is it?" I turned around.

"It's about using magic, not traversing across levels of reality." She closed her eyes and shook her head again, as though quelling the hopes of an over-excited child.

I groaned, just when she had my hopes up. "Alright… What is it, then?"

"I must say, though, I hear it's quite dangerous. Also, the substance is rare." She gently folded the cover of the book, again, and pulled out a small sack, "this is called spirit dust. Apparently, if you take it, magic power can be boosted for an extended period of time. I don't know if it actually works, let alone that it will instill enough magic in someone without the gift, but..." she continued to go on about the nuances of the stuff.

'Of course! Spirit dust was used to boost magic power permanently in the game.' I guess permanence was just a gameplay mechanic, just as so many things turned out to be in this world.

"Okay, so how do I use it?" I interrupted her rambling. 'Sticking around in this world won't be too bad.' At least I could blow things up and shit. I was getting excited again.

"It is inhaled through the nostrils." She deadpanned and pulled the bag away protectively as I reached out to take it.

'Really?' I tried not to laugh. The idea was just too absurd. 'I need to snort mysterious powder? Then again, it's not like there was any other way to take the stuff.' Didn't change the fact that I was dealing with something reminiscent of a certain drug back home.

I hesitated for a moment. Back home, I never broke rules too much. Not that I didn't want to have fun, but that kind of fun didn't seem worth the trouble I'd get later. I gazed at the pouch again. I didn't drink or do drugs on Earth. 'But this isn't home. Rules here are different. Besides, I've already drank.'

My mind flashed back to the night at the inn. I wasn't certain that the drink had alcohol, but it definitely tasted different and I felt a little warm afterwards. I came out of that alive. "What are the problems of this stuff?" Chances were, Miriel was going to say something important.

"This was very difficult to acquire, and I have not quite finished testing it yet. So, there's no telling what dangers could come with it. Moreover, I've heard that it can cause permanent damage to sight and may also cause paralysis in overdoses." She continued, "However, if you wish to use it, I will let you on one condition: report any observations you make when using this substance." She pulled out another, smaller, empty pouch and poured a little bit in, handing it to me. "Do you promise?"

"I do," I gingerly grabbed at the stuff. "If I need more, where can I get it?"

"I hear it is this substance that makes the Plegian mages as formidable as they are. Of course, its location is a secret held only by the Grimleal, so I only know that it is somewhere in Plegia."

I nodded. "Thank you very much. I will pay you back." I grinned, looking her in the eye, "Thanks to you, I can see and maybe even learn to use magic."

She chuckled a little, returning to her desk and picking up her book. "Think nothing of it. You are a Shepherd, and we help each other out."

'Wow, these guys are nice.' I stepped out of the room into the hall outside. I eyed the pouch as I walked down the stairs, this wasn't going to be enough for the entirety of my stay. 'Good thing we'll be visiting Plegia soon.'

* * *

"The idea behind any weapon use." Fred handed me the lance, "is to only put enough force to inflict the intended wound. Any more than that is a waste of energy." He pointed to me. "You are using too much force. Try it again."

I got up, picking my glasses up from where they had fallen, several meters away. 'Even with the gift of sight, the guy doesn't look any friendlier.'

We'd spent the entire afternoon training, if it could be called that. It was more like a game of "beat up George until he decides to scram". I had been beaten and bashed on every inch of my body, and even with wooden training weapons and leather training gear, I could tell I was going to be bruised all over the next day.

I did learn a thing or two, though. It turned out that even though Frederick still didn't trust me, he was willing to go beyond that and still teach me to fight. 'How generous.' My thoughts dripped with sarcasm. The guy loved to talk. But it wasn't conversation that he liked. Frederick just loved to hammer me with what I was doing wrong and why. It was like sitting in a lecture or something.

'The kind of lecture where the professor just points to you, tells you, that you suck, and annihilates you with an exam.' I nodded a little, sounded like school.

I got into the ready stance he'd taught me.

It was pretty simple. I held the shaft of the practice spear at the middle, hands about shoulder width apart. My feet too, were shoulder width apart. I stood straight, the shaft of the lance in front of me.

I had quickly learned how large the gap between my imagination and reality had been. What I had expected was something on the order of what the game cut scenes had depicted. Broad swings, flourishes and inhuman jumps had all become a part of what I thought I would be doing. Of course, as soon as I tried any of those, I quickly found myself on the ground, hurting.

"Hah!" I jabbed forward at the knight, yelling out.

We were standing in a small ring, on the training grounds. Dozens of other rings dotted the area, along with several targets and training dummies in the corner. Sparring seemed to be the primary method of training here. The dummies appeared old and unused, while the training equipment was in great surplus and all in good condition.

The unarmed knight stepped to the right of my attack gracefully, and grabbed at the tip of the stick. He yanked on it, pulling me closer. That's when I met his fist…

…For the seventy-eighth time that day.

* * *

"Ow…" I moaned as I collapsed into a seat in the common room. It was a large room with several chairs scattered across its floor. Maps decorated a couple walls, and a large table sat across from me. This was the room we had eaten in the previous night, and it was also the room in which we would hold meetings, apparently.

At the moment, I was alone. Chrom called for a meeting today, which meant that we would probably be leaving for Regena Ferox soon.

'Speaking of meeting, I didn't even meet anybody yet. How odd…' It was true. Throughout the course of the previous night and all of today, I hadn't seen any of the other Shepherds, save for the ones I had come in with, and Stahl, who'd shown me where the food was.

"Here we are! The Shepherds garrison." A chirpy voice and an equally energetic yellow dress entered the room.

"I know what this place is, Lissa… I was here yesterday." Robin, donned in the purple cloak, strode in after her. He was already starting to look the part of a Shepherd. Confidence seemed to shine from his every step. "This is where-"

"Lissa, my treasure!" Whatever it was the tactician had to say, it was lost as a shrill sound followed a pink flash across the room. "Are you alright? I've been on pins and needles!" Maribelle, or whoever was in that poofy, pink dress, had the poor princess in a vice-like hug.

"Oh, hey Maribelle!" Lissa gasped for breath, still smiling from ear to ear. "So, you're all back from your trip?"

The noble was more or less just as I had imagined: a strict upper class woman. Her frown, straight posture, and fancy dress all spoke for the kind of person she was. 'At least, I think it does.' Who knew? 'Maybe she's chill, like Miriel.'

"'Oh, hey' yourself!" Maribelle took a step back, releasing Lissa. "I've sprouted 14 gray hairs fretting over you!" She gave out a small, barely audible "hmph" as she placed a parasol in her hand. "And yes, we are all back safe and sound." The noble tilted her chin up and looked away.

'Nevermind. Maybe it's on the inside?'

"Aw, you worry too much." The princess giggled jovially. "I can handle a battle or two!" She paused thoughtfully, "…Although I could do without the bugs, and the bear barbeque…" The girl scowled a little.

Robin chuckled at the expense of the blonde, which was met with a girlish pout.

"Hey squirt," a husky voice shouted. "where's Chrom? I bet he had a rough time out there without ol' Teach and his trusty axe!" Vaike strode in, completely shirtless. He wore a confident smile, much like the one Chrom had, only much broader.

Thanks to my trusty new glasses, I was able to get a good look at the guy. His blonde hair was held back by a hairband looking thing. His green eyes were constantly moving, like he was looking for something. He was surprisingly good-looking. I never found the video-game Vaike to be much, thinking of Chrom and even Frederick as far better in terms of appearance. In spite of myself, I couldn't help but recognize his attractive features, something kind of strange for a guy like me.

'The guys are just as hot as the girls here.' I mentally shrugged. It made sense, genetically. Hot people produce hot children, regardless of sex.

All that aside, the youth looked just about as cocky as it got. He walked with so much swagger, I thought he might fall over. 'Anybody who looks and walks like that is obviously compensating for something.' I shook my head sadly. 'He isn't even subtle.' Unlike Maribelle, I couldn't really give the guy a chance, even with his looks. He was just too goofy.

"Oh, so you're 'Teach' now, Vaike, is that it?" Lissa quipped, "And here I thought people were born lacking wits. It can be taught?" She mocked incredulity, smiling broadly at what she had just come up with.

"Ha! Never doubt the Vaike!" He closed his eyes and his chest swelled with pride, before he realized what she'd said. "…Wait, was that an insult?" He frowned for a moment, before shrugging it off when yet another voice came from the door.

"Beg pardon, but when might we see the captain?" Sumia stepped in timidly.

The girl was also more or less my age, as all the characters seemed to be. Sumia must have been eighteen, leaning on nineteen, though, as she seemed to be a little older than Vaike, who looked about my age: eighteen. Her hair was an earthy brown, as were her eyes. Her frame was a little heavier than that of Miriel, but it was still clear that would be light enough to be carried by a Pegasus; she simply had more muscle.

Her features were gentle, almost motherly. It was instantly clear why many people saw her as Chrom's wife.

The way in which she had walked in was completely different from how Vaike had make his entrance. While the guy had strode in, almost without a care in the world, the girl had taken each step deliberately, yet shyly. It was as though she was second guessing every move she made.

'Guess I can kinda relate.' I thought, remembering the fact that I had chosen to enter the war that was coming.

"Poor Sumia, she's been simply beside herself with concern." Maribelle looked sympathetically at her. "She wouldn't stop worrying about it on our journey here."

"Aw, Sumia, that's so sweet of you to be worrying about Chrom." Lissa gave a knowing look, not so subtly.

"Worry?" Sumia looked almost surprised. "Well… He's our captain and our prince—of course I'd worry!"

Vaike, who'd been blithely looking around, clearly disinterested, interrupted, "So… Who's the stranger?"

"No one's stranger than you, Vaike…" Lissa allowed herself a small grin again, "Allow me to introduce Robin! He's just joined the Shepherds. Chrom's made him our new tactician. You should see all the tricks he's got up his sleeves!"

"Oh yeah?" Vaike grinned, attention returning to the conversation, "Can he do this?" The half-naked man took a step back and burped for a good seven seconds.

"I'm sure I have much to learn in the belching arts, 'Teach'." Robin chuckled, having been silent this whole time. "In any case, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintances." He nodded towards everybody else.

"Ugh, Vaike!" Maribelle made a face. "That was abhorrent! Must you baseborn oafs pollute even the air with your buffoonery?" She waved her hand in front of her face. "And you, Robin, don't encourage him! I'd have hoped you were cut from finer cloth." With a sniff, the noble took a step away from the pair, as though it would help her maintain her sophistication.

That was all I needed to hear before I got bored. I closed my eyes and took the moment to relax. My body needed it after the beating I'd taken earlier that afternoon.

'Imagine being on the beach…' I thought, 'Yeah, the beach… and those people aren't talking. A gentle breeze is blowing.'

"Ah…" an audible sigh of relief escaped my lips as I sank deeper into the chair. The sounds of the Shepherds talking became distant.

'Why didn't I do this earlier? Oh, that's right… wanted to get to know the characters— er, people.' I wiggled deeper into the chair. Maybe I could just nap through whatever meeting Chrom had. I knew what it was about anyway.

Unfortunately, that would not be the case.

I started as I heard a loud thud, joined with a small yelp of surprise. Naturally, it was Sumia falling over Chrom. Weather it happened figuratively or not, I would have yet to see. Anyway, Chrom briefed everyone on what the drill was for the march to Regena Ferox.

"Now remember, this mission is strictly voluntary, so…"

The whole room chorused their affirmation. From next to me, I could hear a muffled shout, which I turned to see was Stahl, chewing… well, food. 'I can't say I understand what the food here is.' I thought as I looked warily at the stuff in the guy's hands.

"I-I… um." Sumia stuttered.

"Yes, Sumia?"

"It's just that… I'm not sure I'm ready for a proper mission just yet. I'll probably just get in the way."

"Hey, me too!" I sat up and joined them. 'I forgot that I needed to volunteer… good thing I woke up.' Everybody stared at me, as if I had appeared out of thin air. 'I guess they just never noticed me?' Regardless, I walked next to Sumia, readjusting my glasses. The things really had a problem staying on my face. "Name's George, by the way." I waved to everybody gathered.

"Ah, yes. George…" He frowned, as though something unpleasant had just crossed his mind. It was quite different to see on his face, as it almost resembled the worried look on Frederick's face. "I wanted to speak to you about something, but we can do that later…" He shook his head and left whatever it was that was on his mind. "Well, both of you could stay behind the main group, and if a battle is met, just watch and learn? Your choice, of course, but some lessons can only be learned on the battlefield."

"Count me in." I guess a little part of me wanted to experience _something_ here.

"W-well. If you think it wise, captain."

Chrom smiled charmingly at the two of us. He looked even better in the full HD of my glasses. "Just stay by me and you'll be fine."

* * *

"H-hi there!" Sumia caught up to me pretty easily, her petite form shouldered god-knows what weight in the pack she carried. "George, right? Funny name, never heard it before." She stopped, "N-not that I think it's bad or anything…" The way she spoke was very careful. Every time she stuttered, I could see her second guessing her choice of words, but sometimes, it seemed like her mouth still ran ahead of her thoughts. I decided not to say anything about it.

"H-hey…" I wheezed. "That's me." I gasped out. I tried very hard not to look weak in front of the attractive girl. Unfortunately for me, I was failing miserably. We both wore armor, curtesy of the Ylissean armory, but I carried less equipment than her. I didn't really own much to carry in the first place, and my loss of weight and lack of training left me struggling to stand, much less march.

'This was not how I imagined being in this place.' I frowned. I would have imagined that it would be something of a fun anime adventure. I'd save the day with my foreknowledge, win the waifu of my choice, and _enjoy_ what Ylisse had to offer.

I smiled internally, 'Instead, I was the one saved, was questioned for my foreknowledge, am currently suffering under the heat and weight on my back, and I'm pretty near certain I'm not getting the waifu.' I didn't mind anyway. I just wanted to get home.

I was still sore from the previous day's training, on top of my first training session the day before that. I still had multiple bruises from when Frederick had repeatedly pummeled me. Now, we were marching to Regena Ferox. My body probably hated me.

I was just starting to get used to the food here, which involved a lot of eating with the hands. Most of it was hard bread and stew, but we sometimes got meat as well. As it turned out, chicken, which was a basic kind of poultry at home, was pretty expensive here. Overall, meat was expensive, so I ended up having to settle with stuffing my face with, lo and behold, bread and stew.

I was also just beginning to understand the situation with the bathrooms. To my great relief, the palace did have toilets. They didn't flush, were small, smelly, and were basically like a series of over-sized pits, but they were better than chamber pots. To my not-so-great relief, actually to my great misfortune, the leaves I had originally thought were some kind of food for salad, was actually meant for wiping. If Chrom hadn't been passing by with his sister, the princess would have definitely watched in glee.

Hygiene, something very important to me, did not go forgotten either. Simple things like washing my hands, brushing my teeth and taking showers or bathing became much more difficult and inconvenient. Much to the point where I had to rinse my hands in a pond in a courtyard, use strong wine as mouthwash (which was apparently what everyone did) and just forgo bathing altogether. The last one really sucked because it was often hot and I'd get all sweaty and nasty and filthy.

It was a struggle, but at that point, I was learning.

And so, that morning, I had gotten up and went out to the Shepherds common again. We packed up and called roll. Sully and Virion returned, with no reports of risen, and we headed off. It was a far smaller group than I had anticipated. There were no extra people or advisors. It was simply Chrom, the diplomat, and his entourage of the Shepherds. The mission was small, though, and a smaller group could probably travel faster, so it made sense.

I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath. And now I was exhausted, having a conversation with a beautiful, somewhat nervous girl who could probably kill me. 'Fantastic.'

"Looks like we're in the same boat. I-I mean, both being trainees." Sumia smiled nervously, ignoring my struggle to keep up, "So why did you join the Shepherds?"

I frowned, not sure how to answer. I couldn't say that it was all part of a game and that I just had to survive the end of the world as they knew it. "I guess it just sort of happened," I lied, "I don't have a home, or a family, so I wasn't leaving anything behind…"

She nodded understandingly, if not a little shocked, "O-Oh, so you were one of those orphaned children?"

"Awhatnow?" I stopped, before quickly catching the mistake and jogging to catch up, panting heavily.

"You know," She explained, "one of the children orphaned in the war…" She trailed off.

"War?" I almost stopped again.

"Yeah, a war. Haven't you heard about it?"

"Uh… no?" I provided unhelpfully. I remembered the story I told Frederick, and decided that consistency was important. "I've traveled a very far distance."

"Really?" She looked at me wide-eyed, just as the knight had when I told him the same thing. Travel must have been a serious thing, even with things like dragons. I couldn't help but feel bad as I looked into her eyes, which seemed to fill with wonder for a moment. "You must have a lot of stories to tell then."

I chuckled a little, which came out as a wheezing gasp, "I don't really have much to tell." At least that was the truth. "Anyway, I'd like to hear about this war."

"Okay…" she looked a little disappointed, "The war was a war between Ylisse and Plegia. It began just over a decade ago, and ended only a few years ago. It was no small thing, either. Men and women as far as Valm have heard of it. I'm pretty shocked to hear that there's a person here who hasn't, but you must have come from very far away, so I suppose it would make sense that you haven't heard of it." She seemed to gain a little confidence as she told the story, not stuttering even once.

"Hm… guess that explains why you people hate the Plegian's guts." My fellow trainee gave me a sharp look, clearly offended. "What? You don't?" Even without my knowledge from the game, it was easy to tell how much hostility there was between the two places. Last night, both Chrom and Frederick spoke of the land with venom and even Emmeryn had strained to speak calmly.

"I-I do not hate the Plegians, but I also do not love their king. If Ylisse demands I fight, then I will." The last sentence came out somewhat strained. It was definitely rehearsed in her mind.

'I guess she's feeling pretty conflicted about going around slaughtering people too.'

We walked in silence after that. It was pretty awkward, but I was okay with that. I could focus more on walking and not falling down.

'By the way, isn't Sumia supposed to trip a lot?' I hadn't seen her trip once since the first time. I shrugged. I wasn't going to bring that up either.

The prince appeared at my side, as though from nowhere. I almost jumped. Almost.

"George, I would like to have a word. I believe that I said something about this yesterday." He nodded meaningfully to me.

'Ah, right. He wanted to talk to me… about what?'

"Um, sure." I nodded.

"Would you excuse us, Sumia? I would rather this conversation be private." Chrom turned to her now.

"A-alright." She saluted quickly and hurried ahead.

"So… What's up?" The prince seemed to have something important to talk about.

"Listen, George, there seems to be several problems with your story. It's not that I don't trust you, but that isn't to say I'll believe what you said before. Frederick told me some pretty… perplexing things…" He frowned a little, "Apparently, you come from across the eastern sea?"

"Erm, yes. I am from across the sea, and I think that it was the eastern one, but I'm not sure. Is there anything wrong with that?" I wondered if the lies would ever catch up to me.

"Well," The guy seemed lost in his own thoughts, "there isn't anything absolutely wrong, but I do think that it's an awful stretch that you've come across the sea nobody has survived via a… magical boat?"

"Um… I suppose you could say it like that…" I paused. We walked silently for a while, and Chrom gave me a meaningful look. 'I'm going to have to work with these people for the next few years to beat the game.' I couldn't lie, but I also couldn't tell the truth. "To be frank," I sighed, "I actually don't know how I got here. I was lying about the eastern sea. The magic boat was a joke, but Frederick kind of takes everything seriously…" I shrugged, "all I know is that I'm not from here."

"Okay…" I could tell I wasn't in the clear. Chrom frowned again, "Frederick also said that you seemed to have some knowledge of what would happen, even before it happened. In particular, about knowing what how and where the monsters we fought would come from." He gave me the same look. It screamed for me to explain.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure you'll understand. It just… sort of came to me." I shrugged again unhelpfully.

I wasn't lying, at least not anymore. I wasn't exactly telling the whole truth either, though.

"Really." Chrom nodded, but he looked pretty unconvinced. "I'm not going to force you to do anything, not even to leave. After the last war, Ylisse has been in desperate need of people. For such a large land, we're sorely underpopulated. It's all the better for me if you're willing to fight, because judging from how relations with Plegia are going, there's going to be conflict. The people of my nation are very sore about war, and would probably be willing to fight another one." He frowned and quickened his pace, much to my dismay, "I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if I don't necessarily believe you, I'm not going to turn you away."

"What do you mean?" my brow furrowed, confused, "Didn't you tell your sister, um… I mean, the Exalt that you trust Robin and I?"

His blue hair wiggled as he shook his head, "I meant that I trust both of your senses in a fight, when I said that." He chuckled a little at that, "Even for a nice guy like me, trust has to be earned; it's not given."

I nodded, remaining serious. "It sounds like there have been quite a few wars."

The prince frowned a little, "I wouldn't imagine so. When I was young, my father said these words to me: 'There is always a war being fought somewhere'. I hated it when he said that. Senseless killing is such a terrible thing."

"So why do you do it then? Isn't there a way to live in peace, create prisons and other kinds of places? Negotiate with other nations and come to an agreement?"

Chrom laughed at my words. "If only things were so simple…" When he realized that I was serious, his face darkened, as though heavy thoughts he'd been running from had finally caught him. "Look, I don't know what land you come from, but here we don't have the luxury of peace." He smiled sheepishly, "all those things I said of striving for peace? That's just to inspire confidence. There is no such thing as real peace, even if I'd be nice."

His figure sagged, as though under the weight of all the lives he'd ended. "Those bandits the other day… well, I suppose you were there." He inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, "I didn't want to kill them, but they didn't want to go to jail, and… when people fight, there are no guarantees."

He turned his gaze from the ground, to me. "Sometimes, you just have to choose. It's your life, or theirs." A bitter laugh escaped his lips.

I stared in shock. This was not the man I'd gotten to know through the game. In Awakening, Chrom was mostly the dopey guy who went about bashing the heads of his enemies, and defending his friends valiantly. The video game Chrom didn't get depressed, he wasn't weighed down by regret and uncertainty, and he most certainly didn't want to leave bandits alive. He was confident, heroic, happy.

"Um… yeah." I couldn't say that I understood. The world I had come from was so different. Naturally, there were soldiers, wars and death on Earth as well. Men fought and died and killed every day for all sorts of reasons.

'I guess it was all so far away, I'd never thought about it…' I still didn't know what to think.

Chrom laughed, as though he was trying to force himself away from dark thoughts, "Don't worry about it, though. So long as you don't mess with me, you'll live."

"Hah." I couldn't tell if I was feeling reassured.

* * *

"Um… Chrom. Er, Prince Chrom? Your Majesty?" I frowned. "I thought staying by you meant that we'd be fine."

I was met by a harsh glare from the blue haired man. "How was I supposed to know it'd end up like this?"

I nodded, conceding his point. From behind me, Sumia slapped the back of my head gently, "Don't question the captain!"

The three of us were stuck on a bridge, in the middle of a large plain. Below us, white water raged, smashing against rocks and cutting straight through what would have been a wonderfully peaceful meadow. The situation much like the third chapter of the game.

There was, however, a small difference. The bridge in the game was a small, yet short and sturdily built wooden structure. The one my feet were trembling on was anything but sturdy. Several holes and cracked planks covered the surface of the long, shaky bridge.

'Oh yeah, don't forget that the river isn't just below us. It's far below us.' I wondered how I'd even gotten into this mess.

More importantly, risen swarmed our only exits. Somewhere, behind us, Robin had fucked up. The shit-smelling things had managed to ambush us as we tried to cross the bridge, which drew most people back off the bridge. The problem was that everybody was quickly outnumbered, and the three of us were cut off from the rest of the group.

"So, what's the plan, _captain_?" I stressed the last word, no doubt earning a foul look from the soon-to-be Pegasus knight behind me.

"The plan," the prince growled, "is to not die… and keep pushing to the front of the bridge."

'Wow. Great plan.' I could have come up with that. I tried not to roll my eyes. To be honest, I thought that retreating was safer, but what did I know?

The prince dropped the lance he'd been holding and drew his sword. From under my feet, I could hear the weapon crash and splinter against the rocks.

'Please don't fall. Please, oh please, don't fall.' Between trying not to die, holding back sarcastic remarks and not pissing myself, I was having a difficult time. The place just loved throwing me out of my comfort zone.

I stepped as quickly and carefully as I could, the risen horde hot on the heels of Sumia, behind me. The three of us charged off the bridge and onto solid ground. If it had been like in the TV shows or the movies, we'd get a chance to catch our breath before the real terror began. Unfortunately for us, we weren't afforded that luxury.

I screamed a most uncool shriek as a blade came slashing towards my face. I stepped to the left anyway, making sure to avoid the chasm behind me.

So far, Frederick had only taught me the basics of the lance, and still, it was a stretch to say that I was even proficient. My attacks were apparently very easy to read, I was too slow, had poor footwork and was generally clumsy. Even then, I was learning.

I took another step to left, pivoting to face the offending risen, creating more distance. The undead beast growled and approached. I continued to circle around evasively until we had switched places, I was facing the gorge and the fighter—actually, it must have been a myrmidon class— was facing the plains behind me. I then began to strike as hard as I could, making strong jabs at the head, neck and chest of the risen.

Since the last battle, my resolve had solidified. 'These things are dead anyway. It has to be alright to kill them.' All throughout the previous night, I had reconciled with the fact that I would need to fight the risen. I stared up at the black, stone ceiling and considered what my options were. In the end, I already knew that I'd need to fight. I still wasn't sure about regular humans, but risen definitely needed to die. 'If they don't, it'll be me.'

And so I stabbed firmly at the blue-skinned warrior in front of me. In response, it ducked and dodged backwards. With my superior reach, I was in no harm and so I thrust the spear as quickly as I could. I gave the monster no choice but to dodge. In spite of their brutish and lagging behavior, the risen were incredibly adept at maneuvering.

Eventually, I had finally pushed it against the edge of the cliff. With an anticlimactic jab, I made the risen step back again, forcing it to a crushing demise. "Whew." I wiped some sweat off my brow. That was the fourth risen to die by my hand and the third one of that battle. I was already doing better than in my first duel.

Once again, just as it had been the other three times, I felt a rush of euphoric excitement. I had just _ended_ something. Something that had tried to hurt me, something that I was afraid of, and because of what I had done, it was no more.

I shuddered. I don't know if it was with the rush, or if it was in disgust.

Regardless of what I was feeling, a battle still raged from where I was. Robin had managed to take control of the bridge. Chrom had just finished killing a second or third undead warrior, and Sumia had handled one as well. For the most part, the rest of the monsters were a distance off, no doubt on their way.

Chrom motioned for Sumia and me to come to the bridge, and so we did.

"What's up captain?" I asked as I jogged back to the opening of the bridge.

"What's up is that we need to regroup. We'll wait for Robin to catch up and then we'll discuss tactics with the time we've bought." He paused a moment, in thought, "I'd wager that we should take care of the risen in that building first. We've decided to call them that, by the way. Risen is a fitting name, even though they'd fallen out of the sky." The prince laughed to himself at that. He pointed to a small stone building a quarter of a mile off. Around it, several risen milled about, no doubt gurgling away.

It didn't take long for the rest of the Shepherds to catch up. When they did, Robin looked at the three of us scornfully, "What you just did was probably the most stupid maneuver possible. You're lucky to be alive."

"Please," Frederick sighed, "let's take care of the problem at hand first." He motioned towards the encroaching risen.

"Ah, yes." Everyone looked to Robin, "I guess it would be best to take that building over there," he pointed to the same one Chrom had, "and hold out."

Everybody nodded and the Tactician began yelling out commands.

I was placed right of center, at the front. We marched towards the building, taking care of risen along the way.

'Five… Six…'

I continued to stab and swing and thrust the spear in my hand. I watched as the risen would stiffen up before disappearing in a cloud of purple dust. Time seemed to speed up and blur. Although we were all in close proximity, the other Shepherds' fights sounded and felt distant. We were fast approaching the building.

One, wielding a sword, managed to get past my attacks and close the distance.

It slashed across my belly. A blast of fire from… somewhere burnt my attacker to the ground.

"Ow." I groaned. We were so close to the building, but this time, I wasn't separated.

I fell to my back, looking up at the sky. I could have sworn I saw a flash of light across the blue sky.

I looked down, which was a mistake. I could see through the cut abdominal muscle, at the twisty turns of pink, fleshy intestines. I dropped my weapon, clutching my stomach in a painfully gross attempt to keeping my insides, well, _inside_.

"Ew." I might have coughed, but I could only feel my core muscles flap in a vain attempt to flex.

'That's it?' A week ago, I'd been freaking about a far less disgusting wound. 'Now… now what?' I was still freaking out, but not in the panicked, uncontrollable way I had been before. Fear still clutched my heart, but I my thoughts no longer raced.

'Guess it's just something I'll get used to… how depressing…'

I simply stared up, praying that I wouldn't die. For the first time, I noticed how peaceful the sky looked. A couple big, fluffy clouds soared gently overhead, totally oblivious to the carnage going on directly beneath them.

'Fuck.'

And once again, everything went black.

* * *

I was awoken by the pleasant feeling of magic healing my wounds again. That, or possibly the bliss of being dead. This time, I made the wise decision of not moving. Instead, I contented myself to letting my eyes open.

As my eyes adjusted to the light, I found that I was not, in fact dead. 'Maybe I'd rather be, though.' I thought remorsefully as I got a feel for my surroundings again. I was getting better at surviving, but if I wasn't going to live to see my family again…

'No. That's not how I'm going to be.' I blinked.

"I'm happy to be alive." I said the words as if to confirm it. 'So long as I won't end up suffering painfully like that again…' I shivered involuntarily as I remembered the warm, squishy feeling of holding my own intestines.

"Well, you sure should be," Lissa turned from her healing for a moment to look me in the eyes, her jovial nature extinguished. "You sure have a knack for nearly dying."

'Huh, she's right' I chuckled, for some reason, I found that morbidly amusing. In any case, I earned a slap to the head.

"Hey! No laughing. I still haven't closed the wound." The girl was still very serious, "You can still die if I don't untangle… well, I'll spare you the details."

I nodded dumbly, trying not to look down. With magic and healing and all, I simply assumed that I'd make it out fine at this point. 'Didn't consider that my life was on the line in spite of that. I sure as hell hope she knows what she's doing…' I took another look at the girl who huddled over my wound. She'd saved my life twice, now.

And I closed my eyes again.

 **AN:**

 **Eyyyyyy. There's another chapter. I know what you're all thinking. Again? Really? Geroge sucks at fighting… Well, you're all right! But the important thing is that that's how I always imagined the other characters suffered in in-game fights when they got hurt. The only difference is that most of the Shepherds in my fic have already been fighters, and don't sustain much injury. Most.**

 **I also really banked on using the healers a lot too. So I guess this just reflects my playstyle…**

 **Sorry again about how late the chapter was. I've been trying to do one every week, but always ended up a little late. This one was way late. It must have been over two weeks ago when I posted the last chapter. I don't want to say this, but it'll probably be something like every two weeks or every month or something.**

 **Why? School's starting again! And that means that even more shenanigans are going to screw with my writing schedule. I'll try to get chapters out as fast as possible, but if it doesn't happen, please forgive me.**

 **That said, I think I'll try to get a chapter out by Thursday, September First. I'll make it a promise, just to make up for my screwup. After that… well, we'll see.**

 **On another note… This chapter's still pretty rough around the edges, but I think it's post worthy now. Also I'm kind of anxious to get it out there because I think holding it up will get me carried away to the point that I'll never end up posting it, AND I finally figured out how this AU is going to work, which I'm really excited about! So, sorry about that as well.**

 **As always, thank you for reading this far! Hope you enjoyed it, but regardless of whether you did or not, there's no reason not to leave a review! Because if you liked it, you can tell me so that I can keep writing like this. And if you hated it, you can tell me so that I can change it up a bit!**


	5. Chapter 5: When Things Go Wrong

Chapter 5- When Things Go Wrong

 _Shit. This can't be right._

I guess that wasn't entirely correct. "This" was a little too vague. More like, "everything couldn't be more wrong".

To start, it was cold. Not like, "better put on a jacket" cold but more like a "I think my testicles are inside me" cold. I had a cloak, courtesy of the shepherds, but was otherwise wearing little more than the clothes I stole back in Southtown, and several leather armor pieces. Perfect to keep me warm in the temperate region of central Ylisse. But in the snow of northern Ylisse, did little to keep me warm or dry.

I was lucky enough to have snagged a shirt from Frederick, after mine had ripped a few days ago in the battle with the risen. The game didn't undersell his ability to be overprepared.

Which brings me to the water. Not frozen like the little flakes white that were accumulating on the increasing number of evergreens, but very much liquid, and currently in my hair, on my face, and pretty much anywhere I was producing warmth. My leather boots, once again from Southtown, were waxed, which was great, until the snow on my clothes melted and ran down my ankles to my feet. I don't judge. Some people like feet, but nobody likes them wet.

Cold, and wet. In not so many words, it was cold and wet.

We were only a day from the border. According to Chrom, the Longfort could be reached in about 8 hours of walking at the pace we were going at. And that was great.

Food was not an issue for me, which was also great.

We receive compensation for being with the shepherds, and I'd receive my first pay when we returned. More than great.

I'm getting better at fighting. Frederick has taught me the basics of using a lance. I haven't died. All wonderful things… some might wonder what the source of all my bitching was.

 _The elephant in the room… this guy._

Cold and wet were expected of this part of the world, I suppose. In fact, a lot of my struggles were expected. I knew about them after all. I knew the outcome of the war. I knew who would betray who and who would live and who might die. I was aware that my presence could change any of those outcomes and that my knowledge could work against me. For once in my life, I felt like I knew a lot. Almost everything.

 _Almost…_

What I did not know, was what a man on a wyvern was doing, approaching us.

Red, leathery wings swung out, halting the wyvern's motion. Rusted armor jingled. Leather bindings stretched and groaned as sinewy leg muscles braced for landing. Something about this guy seemed familiar.

 _This can't be happening._

A man dismounted from the beast. His rusty chain mail jingled as leather boots made contact with the untouched snow. The soft white powder crunched under the soles as he strode over to us. I tried to stay calm and get a better look at the guy. His hair was brown, slicked back with silver streaks. His face was sun-worn and slightly wrinkled. He couldn't have been older than 40, but he looked fit and chipper, so maybe even in his late 20's. His cheekbones curved in, like a skull, and he had no shortage of facial hair below his nostrils.

More importantly, I didn't remember this guy from the game. Which meant that he was someone I didn't know about. Just thinking about that made my heart rate rise.

 _This… person can change things. He can change an outcome of a battle that will render all my predictive knowledge about the game useless. I am with the shepherds because I know they will win. This is the second timeline and I know that they win, so if I stay with them I know I will be safe. But if this man changes something, then I don't know what might happen. And then I am in a world where anything can happen and I we all might die._

"Hello, my _fellow travelers_. I assume you are venturing north?"

 _Wait._

He stopped walking and waved, "I have happened to notice a shortcut as I flew over, if you'd like I could guide you."

 _I know this voice._

"Oh no," I breathed.

 _This is the guy who killed Sam._

 **Heeey! I'm back and better. Yeah, I know, "Two years and I'm left with this garbage? A mere 700 words? AAAAAHHHHHH". Well, I'm sorry. I mean, between indecision with the different ways this story can go, and frustration at how it was previously written and work and transportation and school and other stuff, this kind of found it's way to the bottom. But I figured that was kind of sad, so I'm trying to keep it alive.**

 **I do kind of have a feeling of where this might go… I think. I might change my mind. Also, I think you can expect shorter chapters. I've taken a liking to the shorter chapters in other fics and feel its easier to focus that way. Don't worry though, this chapter is still probably going to be one of, if not the shortest chapter.**

 **If you want to know when the next chapter is out, you can follow the story 'cause I don't know either! (JK shooting for mid/late-June) More importantly, review! Tell me what you think, 'cause otherwise… otherwise… I don't know? But seriously, it really helps to know what you guys/gals think of this so please review :)**

 **-Until next time**


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